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South African president defends plans to seize land from owners without compensation


RT
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:45 UTC
Cyril Ramaphosa
© Jeff Widener / Global Look Press
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended land reform plans that include property expropriation days after the US President Donald Trump questioned the policy.

"This is no land grab. Nor is it an assault on the private ownership of property," Ramaphosa wrote in his column for the Financial Times. "The proposals will not erode property rights, but will instead ensure that the rights of all South Africans, and not just those who currently own land, are strengthened."

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has proposed a constitutional amendment allowing the government to seize and redistribute land without any compensation to its owners. The draft, which has not been adopted so far, evoked widespread international outrage and multiple media reports of alleged violence against South African white farmers, including murders.

"The proposal on expropriation without compensation is one element of a broader program of land reform that seeks to ensure that all citizens can have their land rights recognized, whether they live in communal areas, informal settlements or on commercial farms,"the South African President stressed.

Comment: Previously:

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Dollars

EU working on alternatives to SWIFT, IMF to allow for European financial autonomy from US


RT
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:35 UTC
dollars and euros
© Milena Boniek / Getty Images
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says Europe has started work on creating a system for money transfers that will be autonomous from the currently prevailing Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

"That won't be easy, but we have already started to do that," Maas said at the annual Ambassadors Conference in Berlin on Monday, as quoted by RIA Novosti. "We are studying proposals for payment channels and systems, more independent from SWIFT, and for creating European monetary fund."

Maas also announced plans to reveal a new foreign policy strategy towards the US. "It's high time to recalibrate the Transatlantic Partnership - rationally, critically, and even self-critically," the FM said as cited by the agency.
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Chess

Macron: Europe can no longer entrust its security to the US alone


RT
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:26 UTC
french tanks
© AFP
The security of the European Union must no longer depend on the US, French President Emmanuel Macron said. He also called for a review of the security approach towards Europe's partners, including Russia.

Europe can "no longer" entrust its security to the US alone, the French president said, speaking at the annual French ambassadors' conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

"It is up to us today to take responsibility and guarantee [the EU's] security and, therefore, EU sovereignty," he added.

Speaking about Brexit, he stressed that France wants to maintain "strong relationship" with London but "not at the price of the dissolution" of the EU. It is necessary to build "a strategic partnership" with the UK, he said, adding that he has "the same thought" about EU neighbors Russia and Turkey.

Comment: The German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, also tweeted that Berlin should "recalibrate" its relationship with the US, citing America's "growing protectionism" as the reason why Germany should adjust its policies. So will the EU actually stand up to the American Empire, or is this just a bunch of hot air by politicians who typically do what they're told when it comes to following US imperial dictates?

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Russian Flag

Zakharova: US sanctions will not make Moscow change its political course


RT
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:16 UTC
Russian Foreign Ministry
© Natalia Seliverstova / Sputnik
Russian Foreign Ministry
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that US sanctions will not make Moscow change its policies and warned that the 'invented excuse' used by Washington was 'diluting' the international system of chemical weapons control.

"All charges voiced by the US side are ephemeral but the restrictions introduced today are very real, even though they are largely a copy of the already existing ones... And the exclusion of supplies related to space research programs and aircraft safety from the sanctions regime only confirm the hypocrisy and bias of the American authorities," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Monday.

Zakharova also said that, in its latest anti-Russian move, the United States used "a completely invented" connection to the Skripal case, the investigation of which has not ended yet, in order to blame Moscow.

"They accuse us of complicity with the Salisbury tragedy and question the destruction of all stockpiles of its chemical weapons by Russia. Following the already established tradition they present no proof, but they demand a "wholehearted confession" from Moscow as well as access to the chemical sites," the Russian diplomat said.
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Info

Syrian air defenses on highest alert as Russian MoD warns US planning to use fake chemical weapons attack to strike Syria


RT
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 18:50 UTC
US naval ship
© Paul Hanna / Reuters
The US may have plans to use a fake chemical attack in Syria to hit government forces with airstrikes, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Washington is already building up strike capability in the Middle East, it said.

The warning comes a day after the Russian military said it had information about a looming provocation in Syria's Idlib governorate, which would involve a staged chemical weapons attack. The US earlier warned it would respond to a chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces with retaliatory strikes, which would be stronger than those conducted by the US, the UK and France in April.

In a statement published on Monday, the Russian MoD said it noted the deployment to the Mediterranean last weekend of the missile destroyer USS Ross carrying 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board. It came after a similar move of the USS The Sullivans to the Persian Gulf and the rebasing of a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber to an air base in Qatar. The Russian ministry said the "preparations are the latest evidence of the US intention to use the" expected provocation.

Comment: The Syrian air defenses have been placed on highest alert across the country, pro-government reporters claimed this afternoon.
These reports seem to have some truth behind them because a source at the Mezzeh Airbase said that they have been ordered to make preparations for a possible attack on Damascus.

The reason for placing the air defenses on the highest alert was not revealed; however, it is believed to be due to the potential threat of a U.S. strike on the capital or its surrounding area.
See also: Russian MoD warns 'foreign specialists' may stage chemical attack in Syria in 2 days to frame Assad

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Attention

Iran declares full control of Gulf and Strait of Hormuz - China supports the move


Sputnik
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 15:47 UTC
strait of hormuz iranian navy
© AP Photo / Fars News Agency, Mahdi Marizad
Earlier, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) held large-scale military drills in the Persian Gulf. The IRGC said they were ready to disrupt other countries' oil shipments through the strait if Iran's own exports were impeded.

Iran has full control of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, according to Alireza Tangsiri, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's navy chief.

Iranian officials have earlier threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the main oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile actions from the US.

In early July, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held large-scale military drills in the Persian Gulf. The drills were part of the annual exercises framework.

Comment: According to FRN, the IRGC chief, Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari, confirmed Tangsiri's declaration. The drills, supported by Chinese Navy, went "live", and Iran is now poised to enforce full control over the Gulf and Strait. FRN reports:
Iran has confirmed that any number of friendly and neutral states will continue to have full commercial access to the strategic water-way. China has confirmed its support for today's major move on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The strait will now be a part of a strategic co-prosperity zone for Axis of Resistance countries, as well as increasingly neutral states including other Gulf Monarchies, like Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, who are now in a process of pushing out of Saudi-Israeli interference and control. The orientation of these states had begun to shift dramatically in the 2016-17 period, when the success of Iran and Russia in the Syrian war became evident.
...
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been holding large-scale military drills in the Persian Gulf. The IRGC said they were ready to disrupt other countries' oil shipments through the strait if Iran's own exports were impeded.
...
Through the use of and under the cover of 'drills', supported by the Chinese, the Iranian Navy was able to assume full control, unopposed and without a shot being fired, of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Both Russian and Iranian media, under a dangerously increasing regime of US corporate media and internet censorship, have apparently intentionally downplayed today's major, breaking news event. The connection between the drills, and the sudden Iranian military announcement, is not concretely made, even while both events are mentioned in the relevant journalistic reportage of this major event. Iran's English language PressTV has not covered it, and the Sputnik news coverage appears to have intentionally failed to 'connect' some fairly obvious and glaring 'dots'.
...
Senior US officials had said they aimed to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero. Today's events appear to bring a close to that dashed aim.
...
From the perspective of the rising the Multi-Polar Revolution (MPR) in progress, today's immense development cannot be overstated. The Strait of Hormuz is a water-way of tremendous significance, and Iran's liberation of this passage, supported by the Chinese Navy stationed in nearby Oman, signifies the tectonic shift we have witnessed over the last five years. It was five years ago that the US's military planners strategists came to the sober conclusion that they no longer had the force-projection ability, nor the international support, to strike Damascus directly with US or UK air force assets.

This marked a huge turning point in history, almost as if an alternate time-line had crossed into our own, one in which the US Empire was suddenly feckless and incapable of militarily defeating a 4th rate regional military power. In reality, the US military had been in terminal decline, along with its economy, as well-noted, by the neoconservative think-tank, the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) since 2000. In their white paper, they described that only a 'Pearl Harbor like event' could spur the sort of investment in military re-arming that could turn the tide. Ultimately, these efforts were successful in breathing life back into imperial projects, but only for another decade, ending with the destruction of Libya. Their gambit to seize Crimea by staging a coup in Ukraine, and create a permanent war-zone there, also ended in failure.


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Bad Guys

US troops to remain in Syria as DoS official visits Kurdish-occupied areas


Sputnik
Sun, 26 Aug 2018 16:00 UTC
US troops syria Kurds
© Reuters / Rodi Said
US forces are seen at the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) headquarters after it was hit by Turkish airstrikes in Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria April 25, 2017.
In late June, the US reportedly started to establish a new military base near the northern Syrian city of Manbij, already the third in the area, amid previous reports about the US forces' upcoming withdrawal from Syria.

Visiting the cities of Manbij and Kobani in northern Syria's Aleppo province on Sunday, State Department representative William Roebuck pointed out that the US troops are "prepared to stay here, as the President [Donald Trump] has made clear, to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS [Daesh*]."

Roeback added that Washington also "remains focused on ensuring the withdrawal of Iranian forces and their proxies as well", in an apparent nod to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement.

Comment: U.S. "support" for the "aspirations" of the Kurds hides the fact they are being used as pawns to retain illegal control over the richest part of Syrian territory.

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Magnify

Another lie Comey told under oath: He 'needed a warrant' to search Weiner emails

Joe Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Sun, 26 Aug 2018 15:46 UTC
James Comey, Anthony Weiner.

James Comey, Anthony Weiner.
FBI started their search a month prior

Amidst all kinds of confusion and cover-ups, it now looks like fired former FBI Director James Comey lied to Congress more than once about the FBI's investigation into Weiner's emails.

This past week it was reported that the FBI failed to investigate a large portion of emails on the Weiner laptop before the election in spite of fired FBI Director James Comey claiming that they had and no issues were identified:
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Mr. Potato

BBC lauds valiant RAF for keeping nasty Russian planes at bay... 2,000km away from the UK


RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 16:10 UTC
British war plane RAF
© SAC Cathy Sharples / raf.mod.uk / File
The BBC has struck again, plastering another alarming report across their website on Friday to warn the British people about big, bad, scary Russia. So what did those Russkies do this time? They flew a plane near their own border.

Called out on Twitter by Charles Shoebridge, a former army officer, Scotland Yard detective and counter terrorism intelligence officer, his post points out a few details the BBC missed: The Russian plane was in international airspace and the Black Sea - over 2,000km from the United Kingdom - is actually on Russia's doorstep.

"RAF fighter jets have intercepted a Russian military aircraft over the Black Sea for the second time in a week," the Ministry of Defence told the BBC. "The Typhoons were scrambled from a base in Romania on Thursday after a Be-12 maritime patrol aircraft was seen heading south-west from Crimea towards NATO airspace."
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Light Saber

A warning to Trump and Corbyn: Don't fall for the anti-semitism scare

Israel Shamir
The Unz Review
Sun, 26 Aug 2018 15:19 UTC
corbyn Trump
© Press Association
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and {resident Donald Trump
And the Russian warning over Syria

As a new military confrontation over Syria is impending, thought out by Israel, prepared by the British and executed by the US, the West's future depends greatly upon two mavericks, the US President Donald Trump and the UK Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn. These two men are as different as you can make. One is for capitalism, another one is a socialist, but both are considered soft on Russia, at least they do not foam at the mouth hearing Putin's name. Both are enemies of Wall Street and the City, both stand against the Deep State, against NATO, both are enemies of globalism and of world government. One is a friend of Israel, another is a friend of Palestine, but both are charged with racism and anti-Semitism.

It is a quaint peculiarity of our time, that anti-Semitism is considered the great and unforgivable sin, trading places with Christ Denial. Negative attitude to Christ-denying Jews had been de rigueur at its time, and the Church, or its Tribunal, the Inquisition, had tried the charged. Nowadays, the heavily Jewish MSM is the accuser, the judge and jury, considering anti-Jewish attitude as a worst sort of racism. The two leaders aren't guilty as charged, but the MSM court dispenses no acquittals.
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