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Nigel Farage: 'Maybe' there should be a second referendum on EU membership

Joe Watts
The Independent
Sat, 13 Jan 2018 15:57 UTC
Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage
The ex-Ukip leader said 'my mind is actually changing on this'

Nigel Farage has said it may be time to hold a second referendum on Brexit to put an end to the "moaning" of politicians who have not accepted the previous vote.

The ex-Ukip leader argued that leading political figures who have been arguing against Brexit would "never, ever, ever" stop fighting it and so the best way to draw a line under the issue could be a second public vote.

Mr Farage is seen as one of the architects of Brexit and has been the most vociferous critic of people like ex-prime minister Tony Blair and Lord Adonis who have suggested it could be undone.

Speaking on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff, Mr Farage said: "What is for certain is that the Cleggs, the Blairs, the Adonises will never, ever-ever give up.

Comment:

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Blackbox

Is Trump's Afghan policy aimed at Taliban or at China?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 15:36 UTC
US soldier waving US flag over Afghanistan
In recent months the US President has reversed yet another campaign pledge to pull out of Afghanistan, America's longest war, and instead has begun to deploy an added 3,000 troops there. At the same time he has lashed out at the government of Pakistan accusing it of aiding the Afghan Taliban and pledging to cut all US military aid to that country as reprisal. A deeper view into the situation suggests that both moves are linked and have to do with not the Taliban and the Afghan terrorists. It has very much to do with ongoing developments of peaceful construction of the Chinese-led Belt, Road Initiative and desperate attempts of Washington to try to stop those developments using other pretexts.

In June 2017 after intense discussions with his military Trump authorized an added up to 4,000 US soldiers ostensibly to further train an Afghan military in dealing with an increasingly successful Taliban force. By December the Pentagon was engaged in a massive air campaign it said was aimed at destroying the Taliban drug labs.


Comment: And now sending in more troops and equipment: 'Fighting season': Pentagon to send '1,000 new troops and drones' to Afghanistan


Arguing that the Pakistan ISI intelligence service was complicit in giving Taliban, the CIA-trained and al Qaeda-associated Haqqani and other terrorist groups sanctuary across the border, Trump then froze military aid to Pakistan. It is allegedly to force Pakistan's military and intelligence to cut support for the Taliban and other Islamist groups. In one of his infamous tweets, the US President wrote, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools...They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
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Eye 2

Denmark's intel agency keeps terror threat level at 'serious', fears western trained terrorists returning home to country


RT
Sat, 13 Jan 2018 13:49 UTC
Denmark faces ‘serious’ terrorism risk – Security & Intelligence agency
© FILE PHOTO Scanpix Denmark / Reuters
The terrorist threat in Denmark remains "serious," with some jihadists who left Europe to join Islamic State now returning and possibly planning attacks at home, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said in a report.

Military action against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria and Iraq has reduced the terrorist group's capacity, PET said. Nevertheless, people in the West are being asked to commit terrorist attacks; at least 150 Danish nationals have joined IS since 2012, according to the report.
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Video

'Ukraine on Fire': How US, Not Russia, Destroyed Ukraine - Oliver Stone Documentary Finally Available (VIDEO)


Sott.net
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
Ukraine on Fire
Oliver Stone's seminal documentary Ukraine on Fire has finally been made available to watch in the West.

Ukraine, the 'borderlands' between Russia and 'civilized' Europe is on fire. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and Russia's access to the Mediterranean.

The Maidan Massacre in early 2014 triggered a bloody uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, spurred Crimeans to secede and join Russia, and sparked a civil war in Eastern Ukraine.

Russia was portrayed by Western media as the perpetrator, and has been sanctioned and widely condemned as such. But was Russia responsible for what happened?

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

Danger lurks: Washington might torpedo Korea talks

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 15:19 UTC
Korea border
There was near-unanimous welcoming of the surprise peace talks this week between North and South Korean delegations. Even the bellicose US President Donald Trump put aside his fiery rhetoric to endorse the diplomatic engagement between the two divided Koreas, saying he "hoped something good would result".

The two Korean sides met for 11 hours of discussions in the "peace village" of Panmunjom near the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the states since the Korean War (1950-53). The cordial handshakes and friendly words exchanged raised hopes that a major breakthrough was underway - this after a year of mounting tensions and fears of an all-out war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.

Russia and China lauded the opening of talks this week - the first in nearly two years of impasse - saying it was exactly what they had been prescribing for the past several months in order to calm escalating tensions. The United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres also praised the new commitment to dial down conflict.

Perhaps surprising was the apparent welcome given by Washington to the talks. President Trump said he was "100 per cent" behind South Korean President Moon Jae-in's initiative to invite the North to dialogue.
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Info

Trump cancels London visit... so much for the 'special relationship'

Finian Cunningham
RT
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 13:59 UTC
Donald Trump with Minister Theresa May
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Hardly anyone will buy President Donald Trump's explanation for his abruptly canceled visit to London next month. The real reason, no doubt, was to avoid embarrassing scenes of mass street protests marring his official welcome.

Whatever has become of the so-called "special relationship"?

Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader and one of the few British politicians who has openly befriended Trump, expressed embarrassment: "It's disappointing. He's been to countries all over the world and yet he's not been to the one with whom he's closest. I think it's disappointing," Farage told the BBC on the back of news over Trump's cancellation.

The United States and Britain have long flattered each other with declarations of having a "special relationship" - a phrase first coined by Winston Churchill during his postwar trip to the US in 1946.

Given that Britain is America's supposedly closest international ally, what does it say about Washington's present standing in the world when the president is obliged to call off his visit - out of concerns that he's not welcome by the British public?
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Russian Flag

US meddling, Kim's win & cryptocurrencies: Top 5 Putin quotes from his meeting with press


RT
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 14:11 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Grigoriy Sisoev / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with heads of Russian mass media on January 11, 2017
From US interference into other countries' affairs to the cryptocurrency craze, Russian President Vladimir Putin managed to cover a wide range of topics while speaking at his latest major media briefing.

Putin sat down with the heads of major Russian media outlets on Thursday. While he mostly commented on international politics, issues such as cryptocurrencies and the digital economy did not go unnoticed by the Russian leader.

On who was behind recent attacks on Russia's airbase in Syria:
We know who they are. We know whom and how much they paid for these provocations ... aimed at wrecking the agreements that have been reached earlier. It is also an attempt to destroy our relations ... with our partners - Turkey and Iran. We understand it perfectly well and we will act united.

Comment: More of Putin's cryptocurrency comments:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has weighed in on the bitcoin debate. Although there will eventually be a need to legislate cryptocurrencies, he said any risks taken by investors now are their own responsibility.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, President Putin said the Central Bank of Russia's (CBR) cautious approach to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin is because there is nothing to guarantee their value.

"In general, of course, in the future there will certainly need to be legislative regulation. The Central Bank has already repeatedly formulated its attitude to this case, just as the government has.

"The CBR behaves conservatively, but, in my opinion, there are grounds for this conservatism, because it is known that there is nothing behind cryptocurrency, it cannot be a means of accumulation, it has no material value behind it and it is in no way secured," he said.

"In certain situations it can be a way of paying that can be done quickly and efficiently. You can pay, but there are no savings and no guarantee, so the Central Bank approaches this very carefully. The fluctuations are colossal: today you invested everything, and tomorrow everything is lost.

"If we regulate, but not efficiently enough, then the government will be responsible for the difficult situations that people can get into. Right now it is the responsibility of the person himself and the government can only say 'you can do this but you can't do that,' and if it's still not clear then there will be some problems that need to be solved."

Opinion on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remains divided, with some financial experts believing it is a worthy investment, as the price fluctuations and its meteoric rise in value will eventually even out, while others consider it a bubble that will burst sooner or later.

The Russian government is currently mulling over how to best regulate cryptocurrencies, with Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev suggesting in December that mining bitcoin and other forms of online money would be illegal, but buying them or trading them would remain within the law.


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Newspaper

Putin can count on 81% of Russians planning to vote in 2018 election


TASS
Sat, 13 Jan 2018 14:28 UTC
Putin is followed by the Communist Party's candidate, Pavel Grudinin, who would have support of 7.6% of the polled

Putin
© Alexei Druzhinin/TASS
More than 81% of Russians who plan to cast their votes at presidential elections would support Russia's incumbent president, Vladimir Putin, should the voting be held this coming Sunday, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center said on Friday citing the results of a recent poll.

Thus, as many as 81.1% of respondents, or by 2.7% less than on December 17, said they would cast their votes for Putin. The Communist Party's (CPRF) candidate, Pavel Grudinin, would have support of 7.6% of the polled. Notably, the rating of CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov was mere 3.3% a month ago.
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Bizarro Earth

'Fighting season': Pentagon to send '1,000 new troops and drones' to Afghanistan


RT
Sat, 13 Jan 2018 13:46 UTC
U.S. troops and Afghan National Army
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
U.S. troops and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers are seen onboard a helicopter in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan July 7, 2017.
The Pentagon intends to deploy an estimated 1,000 new combat advisers to Afghanistan as part of the Trump administration's planned troop surge, according to reports.

As early as February, members of an Army security-force assistance brigade from Fort Benning, Georgia, will be sent to work as combat advisers to Afghan National Security Forces. Their deployment will bring the number of American personnel in the country to about 14,000.

US military officials told the Wall Street Journal the Pentagon hopes to dramatically increase the American military presence in Afghanistan in time for spring, when the "fighting season" begins.

With operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) winding down in Syria and Iraq, the US military also plans to send more helicopters, ground vehicles, artillery and other equipment to Afghanistan.

Comment: So we can expect more "drive by shootings" and bombed weddings as the US steps up its aggression in Afghanistan. The US policy has not changed and will only continue the 17 year war for many more years until the tables are turned against the US. The decision made with Pakistan may be a tipping point:

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Propaganda

Ridiculously fake news: Putin hatches duplicitous plot to attack global internet cables that would harm Russia more than rivals

Mision Verdad, translated by J. Flores
Fort Russ
Sat, 13 Jan 2018 13:11 UTC
Putin sunglasses
The anti-Russian hysteria created in the American and global public opinion by Western means, is increasing.

This time it is not a new "revelation" about the alleged interference in the US presidential elections of 2016, but a macabre plan by Putin to attack the fiber optic cables that allow for the operation of the global Internet.

The American medium Wired, published an extensive article on January 5th of this year where it projects Russia as a threat to the operation of the transoceanic cables of the Internet, the text also tries to frighten public opinion with the supposed danger that would run the communications services such as Facebook and Skype. The text is written in an apocalyptic language that attempts to describe a certain imminence or desperation of the attack against the Internet, homologous to Russia with a terrorist and criminal organization.
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