The Canary has also seen a copy of correspondence to the Guardian from the same diplomat. In these, he makes a formal complaint, accusing the newspaper of fabricating an earlier story about a Russian plot to smuggle Assange to Russia.
Puppet Masters
The Canary has also seen a copy of correspondence to the Guardian from the same diplomat. In these, he makes a formal complaint, accusing the newspaper of fabricating an earlier story about a Russian plot to smuggle Assange to Russia.
© REUTERS/Juan Medina
Andalusian regional People's Party (PP) leader Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla stands next to PP's president Pablo Casado before national executive board meeting at party's headquarters following Andalusian regional elections in Madrid, Spain, December 3, 2018.
Andalusian regional People's Party (PP) leader Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla stands next to PP's president Pablo Casado before national executive board meeting at party's headquarters following Andalusian regional elections in Madrid, Spain, December 3, 2018.
Andalusia kicked off a busy electoral season on Sunday by delivering the Socialists an unexpected blow and handing over to the far-right Vox a regional kingmaker role long unthinkable in a country with memories of military dictatorship still acute.
With a spate of local, regional and European elections slated for May, parties jostled to take the lead in the changing landscape after the inconclusive outcome in Andalusia, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists could lose control.
"This is just the beginning," Pablo Casado, the new, national leader of the conservative People's Party (PP), told a news conference. "Spain has had enough."
Comment: For voters all over Europe it's not about left or right wing, it's about politicians that are willing to tackle the dire problems the Union is facing, mostly immigration and lack of autonomy, and it just so happens that those needs are being addressed by populists and right-wingers.
- Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie
- Why Macron has France in revolt
- Austria to follow US and Hungary by withdrawing from UN 'mixed up' migration bill
- NewsReal: Populism Explained
- Behind the Headlines: Kurdistan and Catalonia: The Politics of Self-Determination
© REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
The Advocate General, in a report prepared for the European Court in Strasbourg, stated that the UK could suspend the already triggered two-year Article 50 process, according to a lawyer for the group that brought forward the case.
The advice comes just five days before Parliament begins debating Prime Minister Theresa May's largely unpopular Brexit deal, before voting on it on December 11.
"Advocate General Campos Sanchez-Bordona proposes that the Court of Justice should declare that Article 50... allows the unilateral revocation of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU," the bloc's top court's statement read.
Comment: What Brexit? As it stands Brexit is still in farce-mode with relentless debates that go nowhere, and the best outcome from the current situation anyone can hope for is that Theresa May will be ousted and there'll be a shakeup in British politics. Still, according to many commentators, the best (or only viable) option would be to stay in the EU but renegotiate it's membership, perhaps that does provide some hope to both sides:
- Brexit: A Political Farce Based on a Public Lie
- Britain will remain in the EU: Why 'Brexit' outcome is a foregone conclusion
- SOTT Exclusive: Brexit's main goals: Oust Jeremy Corbyn and expand predatory capitalism in Europe
© Agence France-Presse
Michael Cohen (L) President Donald Trump (R)
Michael Cohen (L) President Donald Trump (R)
Cohen pleaded guilty last week to lying to the Senate intelligence committee in 2017 about the Trump Organization's plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow - telling them under oath that negotiations he was conducting ended five months sooner than they actually did.
Mueller, however, in his nine-page charging document filed with the court seen by Capitol Hill sources, failed to include the fact that Cohen had no direct contacts at the Kremlin - which undercuts any notion that the Trump campaign had a "backchannel" to Putin.
Comment: Mueller's "investigation" is crumbling around him, as none of the allegations against Trump have any substance. He is grasping at straws by now. Time to give it up and get on to looking into real corruption. The Clinton Foundation, and Comey's FBI tenure (along with Mueller's) are good places to start.
- Cohen's false statements: Is Mueller's purpose to focus in on non-criminal collusion using the Trump Tower meeting?
- Trump tweetstorm hits back at Cohen and 'fake news' over Tower meeting allegations
- Trump Tower in Moscow? More misleading Russia-gate propaganda
- Kremlin corroborates story Cohen emailed them about Trump Tower deal, shares email
Now, an epic battle of wills is setting up as Robert Mueller's investigation concludes its business and its primary target, the Golden Golem of Greatness, girds his loins to push back. Behind the flimsy scrim of Russia collusion accusations stands a bewildering maze of criminal mischief by a matrix of federal agencies that lost control of their own dark operation to meddle in the 2016 election. The US intel community (CIA, NSA, FBI, etc), with the Department of Justice, all colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the intel agencies of the UK and Australia, to derail Mr. Trump as a stooge of Russia and, when he shocked them by getting elected, mounted a desperate campaign to cover their asses knowing he had become their boss. The Obama White House was involved in all this, attempting to cloak itself in plausible deniability, which may be unwinding now, too. How might all this play out from here?
© Associated Press/Virginia Mayo/File
Jan. 29, 2011. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks on his cellphone at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Khashoggi was a Saudi insider
Jan. 29, 2011. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks on his cellphone at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Khashoggi was a Saudi insider
According to the CNN broadcaster, in over 400 messages, Khashoggi discussed plans with fellow Montreal-based Saudi exile, Omar Abdulaziz, who received asylum in Canada.
In the messages, Khashoggi is highly critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, branding him as a "beast."
Comment: More from CNN on the lawsuit:
According to Bill Marczak, a research fellow at the Citizen Lab, the software was the invention of an Israeli firm named NSO Group, and deployed at the behest of the Saudi Arabian government.And yet:
Danna Ingleton, an Amnesty deputy program director, said its technology experts studied the staff member's phone and confirmed it was targeted with the spyware. Amnesty is currently exploring potential recourse against NSO Group and last week wrote a letter to the Israeli Ministry of Defense requesting it revoke NSO's export license, Ingleton said.
On Sunday, Abdulaziz's lawyers filed a lawsuit in Tel Aviv, alleging NSO broke international laws by selling its software to oppressive regimes, knowing it could be used to infringe human rights. "NSO should be held accountable in order to protect the lives of political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists," said the Jerusalem-based lawyer Alaa Mahajna, who is acting for Abdulaziz.
The lawsuit follows another filed in Israel and Cyprus by citizens in Mexico and Qatar.
Khashoggi a critic of the Saudi regime? Only in western journalists' dreams
In addition, shortly before the meeting, Macron had not only spoken of the "urgency" of building a European army; he also placed the United States among the "enemies" of Europe. This was not the first time Macron placed Europe above the interests of his own country. It was, however, the first time he had placed the United States on the list of enemies of Europe.
President Trump apparently understood immediately that Macron's attitude was a way to maintain his delusions of grandeur, as well as to try to derive a domestic political advantage. Trump also apparently understood that he could not just sit there and accept insults. In a series of tweets, Trump reminded the world that France had needed the help of the USA to regain freedom during World Wars, that NATO was still protecting a virtually defenseless Europe and that many European countries were still not paying the amount promised for their own defense. Trump added that Macron had an extremely low approval rating (26%), was facing an extremely high level of unemployment, and was probably trying to divert attention from that.
Comment: Recent updates now include ambulance workers and firefighters joining in the protests:
Note in this next tweet they're turning their back on the mayor, not Macron.
And for more on the situation, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Révolution Jaune? France Revolts Against Macron
© Mohsin Raza
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur border corridor, which will officially open next year, on November 28.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur border corridor, which will officially open next year, on November 28.
"I, the prime minister, my political party, the rest of our political parties, our army, all our institutions are all on one page. We want to move forward," Khan told the event in Pakistan's Punjab Province on November 28.
"If India takes one step forward, then we will take two steps forward toward friendship," Khan also said in his speech.
Comment: Is this an isolated confidence-building measure, or truly a 'ground-breaking' event?
That remains to be seen, but with Chinese mega-bucks dangling the carrot of massive infrastructural development, peace, it seems, is finally becoming too expensive to leave in tatters forever.
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
Under the incumbent US president the country has made a sharp turn towards a more aggressive foreign policy. He reversed the Obama-era limitations on defense spending, pushing a multibillion hike in the military budget for FY2018 and FY2019 through Congress.
Trump's administration also passed a number of key national security documents like the Nuclear Posture Review and the National Military Strategy, which stated that a confrontation with Russia and China are primary goals for the US military.
Comment: Is it schizophrenia? Selective amnesia? Or does he know what he did but wishes he could've done differently but he couldn't because... the US is in too deep now?
© Flickr/ Commander
The United States has begun constructing a maritime operations center at the Ochakov Naval Base in Ukraine, the US Navy said in a statement on Monday.
"Seabees held a groundbreaking ceremony for a maritime operations center on Ochakov Naval Base, Ukraine, July 25," the Navy said in the statement, referring to the US Naval Construction Battalions, known as Seabees.
Comment: That's close to - if not the exact location - where the three 'Ukrainian' boats set out in the last week of November 2018 to provoke the Russian Navy at the Kerch Strait on the other (eastern) side of Crimea.
Comment: When a journalistic institution is gunning for the take-down of a journalist, jeopardizing their own ability to report the news in the process, this should raise some red flags. What we see from the Guardian, and some other media outlets, on subjects of import is more or less public relations releases from alphabet agencies. Understanding this, it becomes more clear the paper's motives. That people buy it is really the shocking part.
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