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French Army releases video showing soldiers firing artillery shells on ISIS positions


RT
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 16:26 UTC
france night vision isis
© FORCESFRANCAISES / YouTube
The French Army has released a video of its howitzers firing on Islamic State positions in Iraq. Artillery is part of a taskforce backing Iraqi troops in their advance against the jihadists.

The night footage posted on the official YouTube channel of the French Armed Forces shows Caesar howitzers as they "support Iraqi forces," a description says. Caesar is a French self-propelled 155mm artillery system installed on a 6X6 or a 10 chassis truck.

"The goal is to deliver the fire support in the shortest possible time, between five and 10 minutes after the firing order is sent to the battery. We assure the permanence of support to Iraqi troops 24 hours," a captain named Alexander (France does not disclose the full names of its soldiers for security reasons), is being quoted by AFP.

In early September, France deployed over a hundred soldiers as part of its Wagram Task force to Iraq. The group is compiled out of various units including four Caesar artillery systems. The contingent is now engaged in aiding local forces in re-taking Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), AFP reports.

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Snakes in Suits

Kiev criminals forced to declare their assets, revealing life of luxury which enrages former supporters

Ruslan Ostashko (translated by J. Arnoldski)
PolitRussia / Fort Russ
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 15:47 UTC
poroshenko
Once again, the Ukrainian electorate is being taken for a grand ride and being stirred up. Whether unfortunately or fortunately, our information field overlaps with the raging infofield of our neighbors, and we have the opportunity to observe in real time the nervous breakdown of particularly impressionable citizens in neighboring Ukraine.

Some Russian connoisseurs take pleasure in this spectacle, and this is understandable. The point is that Western advisors have forced Ukrainian politicians and officials to declare their income and assets and open up testaments of this information for public access. Due to the primitiveness of the Ukrainian political class, which loves to steal a lot openly and is also full of confidence that nothing will happen, the contents of their declarations of assets was simply extravagant.

Speaking plainly, reading the declarations of the leaders of the Maidan leaves its supporters in depression or rage. Some people particularly sensitive in nature are going mad and falling into depression at the same time. They can also be understood. It's not pleasant for anyone to feel like a sucker and loser who has been let down in the most primitive way.

In this sense, Poroshenko's declaration of assets is not so impressive, since his wealth is already widely known. Some Ukrainians are even proud that Poroshenko is richer than Putin and many American presidents. But the declarations of ordinary members of the Ukrainian political class are shocking.

Comment: The declarations of Kiev officials reveals not only loads of cash, but also a bevy of luxury items such as faberge eggs, a ticket to space, prime real estate, fast cars and fancy watches. While the average monthly income for Ukrainians hovers around $200 a month and soldiers sacrifice their health for a paltry $276 a month, the politicians who sit back safe in their armchairs are living a life of luxury built on the backs of thousands of dead Ukrainians.

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Arrow Down

Anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders on trial for hate speech


Al Jazeera
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:53 UTC
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders leader of the Dutch freedom Party (PVV)
Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam politician, has gone on trial on hate speech charges in a case that will test the boundaries of free speech in the Netherlands, in the run-up to parliamentary polls next year. Wilders was not present in the dock when proceedings opened at 08:30 GMT at a high-security courthouse near Schiphol airport.

He has refused to cooperate in what he calls "a political trial" and, as is his right under Dutch law, is leaving his defence to his lawyers. A three-judge bench will hear the case against Wilders, 53, on charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred after comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.

Controversial comment

Due to run until November 25, the trial particularly focuses on a comment made at a March 2014 local government election rally, when Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?" When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!", Wilders answered: "We're going to organise that."


Comment: If Geert Wilders's career as a politician doesn't work out, he might find fulfilling work as a racist mouthpiece at Charlie Hebdo.

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Pumpkin 2

Democrats furious that FBI won't name Russia as responsible for imaginary hacking operation


RFE/RL
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:53 UTC
clinton-comey
U.S. Democratic leaders have blasted FBI Director James Comey for refusing to join other top government officials in naming Russia as the hacking operation behind leaked Democratic e-mails in what one called a "blatant double standard."

Comey inserted himself into the political contest between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump last week by informing Congress that the FBI is investigating e-mails that surfaced during an investigation into former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of a close Clinton aide.

But according to a report by CNBC on October 31, Comey refused to join a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of National Intelligence on October 7 attributing the leaking of hacked Democratic e-mails to Russia, arguing that it was too close to the election and he did not want to be seen as trying to influence the vote.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said the revelation that Comey had reservations about naming Russia weeks before he announced an investigation into newly discovered e-mails shows "a blatant double standard."

Comment: Killary's flatulent tirades about Russia have come back to haunt her, the media, and the political establishment that has propped her up. Even manufactured polls are no longer able to conceal the immense distrust that the American people have for this creature. Politicians and other officials are going nuts as their Frankenstein 'reality creation' turns on them.

See also:

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Propaganda

Propaganda alert: MI5 head warns of Russia's growing threat across Europe


RT
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:20 UTC
Andrew Parker
© PAAndrew Parker, the head of MI5 CREDIT
Russia poses an increasing threat to the UK and is using all the powers at its disposal to push its policies abroad, Director General of MI5 Andrew Parker told the Guardian.

"It [Russia] is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push its foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways - involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber-attacks. Russia is at work across Europe and in the UK today. It is MI5's job to get in the way of that, "Parker said in the first interview by an incumbent chief since the service was founded over 100 years ago.

He added that Russia still has spies on the ground in the UK, but due to the development of cyberwarfare, ways and methods have been changing. Among the alleged targets he indicated, are military secrets, industrial projects, economic information and government and foreign policy.

"Russia increasingly seems to define itself by opposition to the West and seems to act accordingly," Parker said.

"You can see that on the ground with Russia's activities in Ukraine and Syria. But there is high-volume activity out of sight with the cyber-threat. Russia has been a covert threat for decades. What's different these days is that there are more and more methods available," he added.


Comment: The Kremlin has responded to the above outrageous claims by the MI5 director, with Dmitry Peskov saying:
"Until real proof is furnished, we will consider any statements, by either the MI5 chief, or the United States Vice President, or any other official, as evidence-free and unsupported, so, we cannot have any regard for these unsubstantiated statements," Peskov stressed.
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Stock Down

Thanks to the West's carnage - Libya on brink of economic collapse


RT
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:19 UTC
Fighters of Libyan forces
© Hani Amara / ReutersFighters of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government take cover during a battle with Islamic State militants in Ghiza Bahriya district in Sirte, Libya October 31, 2016.
The Libyan economy is facing collapse as the civil war is disrupting the country's main source of income oil production, warns the World Bank.

"With oil production just a fifth of the potential, revenues have plummeted, pushing fiscal and current account deficits to record highs. With the dinar rapidly losing value, inflation has accelerated, further eroding real incomes," the report said.

As a result of falling crude prices and low output, Libya's foreign reserves have shrunk from $107.6 billion in 2013 to a projected $43 billion by the end of this year.

Comment: Read more about the tragedy in Libia:

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Info

Russian naval battle group reaches Mediterranean after the NATO freak out


RT
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:14 UTC
Russia nuclear-powered heavy cruiser Peter the Great
© Dover-Marina.com / Sputnik
A Russian naval group, headed by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and the battle cruiser Peter the Great, has made its way into the Mediterranean, causing quite a stir in the West, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Moscow has been surprised by the countries that have denied Russia's warships entry to their ports, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said, adding that 'Western colleagues' need to decide who they are actually fight against - terrorists or Russia.

"The movement of our ships has caused a stir among our Western partners," Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"But the most surprising thing was the position of certain countries that, under pressure from the US and NATO, have publicly refused our warships entry to their ports."

"It did not affect the schedule of their movement along the chosen route, as they had been provided with all the necessary resources," he added.
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Eye 2

Podesta emails a window into how America is really run

Thomas Frank
The Guardian
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:27 UTC
hillary
© Carolyn Kaster/Associated PressPresidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives on her campaign plane at Martha’s Vineyard Airport on 20 August 2016
WikiLeaks' dump of messages to and from Clinton's campaign chief offer an unprecedented view into the workings of the elite, and how it looks after itself

The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta. They are last week's scandal in a year running over with scandals, but in truth their significance goes far beyond mere scandal: they are a window into the soul of the Democratic party and into the dreams and thoughts of the class to whom the party answers.

The class to which I refer is not rising in angry protest; they are by and large pretty satisfied, pretty contented. Nobody takes road trips to exotic West Virginia to see what the members of this class looks like or how they live; on the contrary, they are the ones for whom such stories are written. This bunch doesn't have to make do with a comb-over TV mountebank for a leader; for this class, the choices are always pretty good, and this year they happen to be excellent.

They are the comfortable and well-educated mainstay of our modern Democratic party. They are also the grandees of our national media; the architects of our software; the designers of our streets; the high officials of our banking system; the authors of just about every plan to fix social security or fine-tune the Middle East with precision droning. They are, they think, not a class at all but rather the enlightened ones, the people who must be answered to but who need never explain themselves.
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Rocket

China interested in buying Russian rockets after first meeting of BRICS space agencies


RT
Sun, 30 Oct 2016 12:57 UTC
russian rockets
© Alexey Filippov / Sputnik
At the first meeting of the BRICS nations' space agencies, the five-member bloc agreed to set up a joint grouping of satellites and share data. Beijing has shown particular interest in purchasing Russian rocket engines.

At the inaugural meeting, which was held in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, the heads of the space agencies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa agreed to step up cooperation in space, the head of Russia's Roscosmos Igor Komarov said on Tuesday.

At the meeting, which will now become regular, the countries "agreed that in the future, we will set up a joint grouping of satellites for Earth remote sensing," Komarov said, adding that the countries have also been thrashing out the legal details involved in the agreement, which will set up a framework for data exchange between the space agencies on Earth remote sensing.
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Snakes in Suits

FBI investigation finds no proof of Trump-Russia ties, US officials point finger at Comey


RT
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:39 UTC
Donald Trump
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
FBI officials say their investigation into links between US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Russia has been unable to uncover any so far, according to the New York Times.

The bureau has been trying to find evidence showing that the Russian government is trying to influence the US presidential campaign since the beginning of summer. FBI agents have put advisers close to GOP candidate Donald Trump under close scrutiny, searching for financial connections that some have alleged exist between the nominee and Russian financial figures. They even followed up on a lead hinting that there had been a secret email correspondence between Trump's Organization and Russia's Alfa-bank. All the while, the bureau has been searching for the hackers that breached the computers of the Democratic camp and leaked emails that became the source of many scandals damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Nonetheless, the FBI still cannot say that any of its investigations have uncovered direct links between Trump and Russian authorities, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing recent interviews and its own bureau sources.

"No evidence has emerged that would link [Trump] or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia's election operations," writes the NYT.
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