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Russia, China sign mega trade deals, hope to see $200bln in trade per year in next 3-7 years


RT
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 16:38 UTC
keqiang medvedev
© Alexander Astafyev / SputnikRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the document-signing ceremony following the 21st regular meeting of the heads of the Russian and Chinese government, St. Petersburg, November 7, 2016.
Economic cooperation between Russia and China is meeting expectations with more than $40 billion in trade this year, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in St. Petersburg.

Moscow and Beijing will make additional efforts to increase trade to $200 billion in next 3-7 years, according to the Russian PM.

Medvedev says a preferential trade regime between the countries is being considered, which would increase the use of national currencies in settlements.

Li Keqiang is paying an official visit to Russia to discuss trade and investment ties, as well as cooperation in oil, gas and nuclear power.

Comment: They are also looking into financing the Western Europe-Western China Highway stretching from China through Kazakhstan and Russia to the Baltic Sea:
"We are going to discuss with the AIIB the possibility of funding the project called 'the Meridian.' As you know, it is a highway, which is set to link Western China to Western Europe," [Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov] said at a meeting of the Russia-China committee of entrepreneurs.
They are also planning to cooperate more closely on food and agriculture.

Russia is so isolated, we don't know how it can possibly cope.

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Jet4

Iraqi militia commander: We don't want US air support in Mosul


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 17:31 UTC
Iraqi forces fire mortar shells towards positions of Islamic State
© AFP 2016/ BULENT KILIC
Iraq's state-sponsored People's Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as al-Hashd al-Sha'abi, do not need the United States to conduct airstrikes on Daesh targets during the operation aimed at freeing Mosul, Ahmet Arslan, a Turkmen commander with the PMF, told Sputnik.

"We do not want the United States meddling in Iraq. We told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as much. Al-Hashd al-Sha'abi does not need America's aerial support in the operation to free Mosul from Daesh, which the US created," he said.

The Mosul campaign, dubbed Operation "We Are Coming, Nineveh," was launched on October 16 to liberate the second largest city in the country and the capital of the Nineveh province. The city, home to approximately 1.5 million people, has served as Daesh's key stronghold in Iraq since the militants seized it in a blitz offensive on June 10, 2014.

Comment: See also: Shiite militia commander: US striking jihadists in Iraq to promote national interests

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Chess

US Asia pivot 'dead in the water'? Malaysia yet another American ally shifting away from the global hegemon

Alex Gorka
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 16:11 UTC
Najib Razak and Xi Jinping
Malaysia is another old time America's ally to shift away from the US orbit following the Philippines. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited China on October 31-November 6 to sign 14 agreements totaling 143.64 billion ringgit ($34.25 billion), including a defence deal. Malaysia agreed to buy four Chinese littoral combat ships. Two will be built in China and two in Malaysia.

The rapprochement has taken place despite the differences over the South China Sea territorial disputes. During the visit, both countries pledged closer cooperation to handle the problem bilaterally to counter US influence in the region.

Najib Razak said Malaysia welcomed the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which marks a turning point «of peaceful dialogue, not foreign intervention, in sovereign states». Global institutions needed to be inclusive of «countries that were given no say in the legal and security infrastructure that was set up by the victors of the Second World War», he noted.

China has increasingly invested in Malaysia and is implementing major infrastructure and other projects in the country. Chinese companies are widely expected to win a planned $15bn high-speed rail project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore - a new rail line on Malaysia's east coast. With the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in jeopardy, the US seems to have little leverage over Malaysian foreign policy.

Comment: Malaysian PM: Imperial powers in no position to lecture ex-colonies they once exploited on how to conduct internal affairs

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Gold Seal

Ortega wins Nicaraguan elections by landslide - Venezuela congratulates him on his victory

Lucas Koerner
Venezuelanalysis.com
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 16:29 UTC
ortega
Venezuela's Foreign Ministry issued a communiqué Monday congratulating incumbent Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on his landslide victory in Sunday's elections.

"The victory obtained by the Nicaraguan people is the result of an extraordinary mobilization of popular forces which demonstrate once again the elevated consciousness of the majority of the Nicaraguan people and its commitment to the construction of a sovereign, independent, and peaceful homeland," reads the official statement.

Ortega, who led the Sandinista guerrilla struggle that overthrew the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979, was reelected to a third term with 72.1 percent of votes and two-thirds of the results accounted for. The right-wing runner up won just 14.2 percent of the vote and refused to recognize the outcome.

The Sandinistas also won Sunday's parliamentary contests with 66.4 percent of votes. The polls took place overwhelmingly without violence according to international observers and saw a turnout of 65.8 percent.

Comment: Katehon observes:
Ortega is well-known to defend traditional family values. This is very significant, because some leftist Latin American governments have supported several of the Sandinistas' projects at the legislative level, such as Uruguay and Bolivia.

Nicaragua traditionally opposes US influence in the region. It is also one of the few countries that recognizes the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The country's relations with Russia will remain at a high level.

Moreover, one of the country's priorities in terms of international policy is constructing a canal which will compete with the Panama Canal. Its operation is to be fully planned by 2019 and fully implemented by 2024.


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Eye 1

Three new scandals show how pervasive mass surveillance is in the West

Glenn Grenwald
The Intercept
Fri, 04 Nov 2016 10:19 UTC
1984 is now
© sofias-filosofia.blogspot.com
White most eyes are focused on the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, three major events prove how widespread, and dangerous, mass surveillance has become in the West. Standing alone, each event highlights exactly the severe threats that motivated Edward Snowden to blow his whistle; taken together, they constitute full-scale vindication of everything he's done.

Earlier this month, a special British court that rules on secret spying activities issued an emphatic denunciation of the nation's domestic mass surveillance programs. The court found that "British security agencies have secretly and unlawfully collected massive volumes of confidential personal data, including financial information, on citizens for more than a decade." Those agencies, the court found, "operated an illegal regime to collect vast amounts of communications data, tracking individual phone and web use and other confidential personal information, without adequate safeguards or supervision for 17 years."
Guardian screenshot
© The Guardian
On Thursday, an even more scathing condemnation of mass surveillance was issued by the Federal Court of Canada. The ruling "faulted Canada's domestic spy agency for unlawfully retaining data and for not being truthful with judges who authorize its intelligence programs." Most remarkable was that these domestic, mass surveillance activities were not only illegal, but completely unknown to virtually the entire population in Canadian democracy, even though their scope has indescribable implications for core liberties: "The center in question appears to be the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's equivalent of a crystal ball — a place where intelligence analysts attempt to deduce future threats by examining, and re-examining, volumes of data."
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Hearts

Putin stands in solidarity with those who oppose animal cruelty


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:31 UTC
Putin giving luvvies
© putnik/ Alexei Druzhinin
Russian President Vladimir Putin shares the position of those who oppose cruelty against animals and says there may be a legislative initiative aimed at increasing penalty for such crimes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday

On Saturday, a rally against the animal cruelty was held in Moscow, demanding introduction of stronger punishments under article 245 of the Criminal Code. The rally took place after two young women suspected of extreme animal cruelty were arrested in Russia's Khabarovsk Krai.

"Certainly, the president believes that such legislative initiative would have the right to exist, this is likely to be related to the position of the animal rights defenders, who oppose animal abuse. The president shares [the position of those who] stand against the cases of cruelty to animals and he is in full solidarity with those who oppose [the cruelty]," Peskov told journalists.

Peskov added that the issue of strengthening responsibility for committing crimes against animals through endorsing legislative amendments should be addressed by experts in the relevant area and legislative bodies.
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Evil Rays

Preemptive damage control: Clinton campaign says if Wikileaks publishes "whopper" email, "it's probably a fake"

Oliver Darcy
Business Insider
Sun, 06 Nov 2016 16:15 UTC
killary
A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign said Sunday that if Wikileaks were to publish a bombshell email in the final two days of the election, it would likely not be authentic.

"Friends, please remember that if you see a whopper of a Wikileaks in next two days - it's probably a fake," tweeted Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for the Clinton campaign.

For the past several weeks, WikiLeaks has published emails obtained from a hack on campaign chairman John Podesta's personal account. Many messages published have included exchanges that have caused headaches for the Clinton campaign.

The Clinton campaign has repeatedly declined to say whether any of the emails are authentic, but most reporters and political analysts have reported on them as such.

Representatives for the Clinton campaign have, instead, only said the emails were likely the result of Russia trying to use hackers to interfere with the election. The US intelligence community has publicly accused Russia of hacks on Democratic Party organizations.

Comment: "Probably." In other words, it's possible it's not, which means that even the Clinton spokespeople are aware of the fact that such whoppers may exist. But leaving all that aside, plenty of whoppers have already been published. To mention just one: Clinton is financed by the same state sponsors of terror that fund ISIS. Even if that were the only one, it would be enough. For the rest of them: Most Damaging Wikileaks. One of the latest:
2. DynCorp employees hire 15-year-old boy to strip dance for them. Hillary Clinton covers it up because she received money from DynCorp.
  • https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/15526
  • "The other issue that surfaced at the time was a colossal error in judgment by one of the contractors' employees in hiring an adolescent boy dancer for some sort of event that, at least to most folks, looked very inappropriate. The Post is now looking at the dancing boy, which was not included in the April 17, article"
  • "the DynCorp regional commander from Konduz, Flint Chambers, allowed his men to hire a 15-year-old boy dancer to do tribal dances at a DynCorp party on the training site. Some 15 or so DynCorp employees in attendance pulled out a single chair and had the boy do mock lap dances. This was captured on video. The video shows DynCorp employees putting dollar bills in the boy's waistband, just as they would a stripper's garter. The revelry lasted about 45 minutes."


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Heart - Black

Janet Reno, dead at 78

Stephanie Hanes
Washington Post
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:27 UTC
Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Reno, the strong-minded Florida prosecutor tapped by Bill Clinton to become the country's first female U.S. attorney general, and who shaped the U.S. government's responses to the largest legal crises of the 1990s, died Nov. 7 at her home in Miami. She was 78.

The cause was complications from Parkinson's disease, her goddaughter, Gabrielle D'Alemberte, told the Associated Press. Ms. Reno was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1995, while she was attorney general.

Ms. Reno brought a fierce independence to her job. From the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas to the investigation into Clinton's sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, she was adamant that her prosecutors and agents work outside the influence of politics, media or popular opinion.

Her supporters believed she brought a heightened level of integrity and professionalism to the attorney general's office. They admired her insistence on legal exactitude from her employees and praised her caution in prosecutions.
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Dollars

Leaked emails show Chelsea's husband courted Clinton Foundation donors to raise money for hedge fund

Kenneth P. Vogel
Politico
Thu, 17 Nov 2016 01:19 UTC
Mark Mezvinsky Chelsea Clinton
© GettyMarc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton's husband, extended invitations to a Clinton Foundation poker event to rich Clinton supporters he was courting as investors in his hedge fund, according to the WikiLeaks documents.

In a hacked email, ex-Clinton aide Doug Band claims Marc Mezvinsky traded on family ties to help his fund.

Chelsea Clinton's husband used his connections to the Clinton family and their charitable foundation to raise money for his hedge fund, according to an allegation by a longtime Clinton aide made public Sunday in hacked documents released by WikiLeaks.

Marc Mezvinsky extended invitations to a Clinton Foundation poker event to rich Clinton supporters he was courting as investors in his hedge fund, and he also relied on a billionaire foundation donor to raise money for the fund, according to the WikiLeaks documents. They also assert that he had his wife Chelsea Clinton make calls to set up meetings with potential investors who support her family's political and charitable endeavors.

The documents — a memo and an email — were written in late 2011 and early 2012, respectively, by ex-Clinton aide Doug Band. They were sent to family confidants including John Podesta, who is now serving as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, and Cheryl Mills, who was Clinton's State Department chief of staff.
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Attention

Was Seth Rich 'made an example of'? Podesta emails discuss this tactic

Joseph Jankowski
Planet Freewill
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 15:27 UTC
Seth Rick
Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich
Within the 22nd round of the John Podesta email dumped by WikiLeaks, one email shows Clinton campaign strategist Joel Benson and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta discussing 'making an example out of' suspected campaign allies that leak information about the Clinton presidential operation.

The February 2015 email begins with Joel Benson expressing his concern over loose lips closely tied to Clinton that had talked to the press.

While citing an article in the Washington Post that covered how Hillary Clinton had recruited consumer marketing specialists onto her team of trusted political advisers and cited sources close to the would-be presidential candidate at the time, Benson says that anyone whose name that is mentioned in the news shortly after meeting with Hillary should be disconnected from the campaign.

"But this is by far the most damaging story and most damaging type of story we can have," Benson said in the email. "The press will love writing these. I did when I was a reporter."
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