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Venezuela's Guaido announces new talks with Maduro gov't


DW
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Venezuela activist
The Norway-brokered talks aim "to establish a negotiation on the end of the dictatorship," the opposition leader said. Backed by Russia and China, socialist President Nicolas Maduro has refused to step down.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Sunday announced fresh talks with the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido, who declared himself acting president earlier this year, said the Norway-brokered talks aim "to establish a negotiation on the end of the dictatorship," referring to Maduro's regime.

"The Venezuelan people, our allies and the world's democracies recognize the need for a truly free and transparent electoral process that will allow us to surpass the crisis and build a productive future," he said.
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Jet2

Aging Sky Junk: US Air Force Rejects Proposal To Restart F-22 Raptor Production

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ News
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 17:28 UTC
F-22 Raptor

F-22 Raptor
The United States Air Force published a report, according to which F-22 Raptor has become an aging design and that, sooner than later, it will not be competitive against evolving threats as nations like Russia and China continue to invest in new state-of-the-art technologies.

A 2017 Pentagon report to Congress detailing production retail costs for Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor show that reviving the powerful stealth air superiority fighter would be prohibitively expensive. Moreover, it would take so long to reconstitute the production line that it would not be until the mid to late 2020s before the first "new" F-22s would have flown. By that time, the F-22 would be obsolete, challenged by new and highly advanced Russian and Chinese capabilities.
"The timeline associated with pursuing F-22 production restart would see new F-22 deliveries starting in the mid-to-late 2020s," the Air Force report to Congress reads. "While the F-22 continues to remain the premier air superiority solution against the current threat, new production deliveries would start at a point where the F-22's capabilities will begin to be challenged by the advancing threats in the 2030 and beyond timeframe. F-22 production re-start would also directly compete against the resources necessary to pursue the Chief of Staff of the Air Force-signed Air Superiority 2030 (AS 2030) Enterprise Capability Collaboration Team (ECCT) Flight Plan, which addresses the critical capabilities required to persist, survive, and be lethal in the rapidly evolving-highly-contested Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) threat-environment."
As it was explained in the report, the aging F-22 design will not be competitive against rapidly evolving adversaries coming from Russia (Su-57) and China (J-20).
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Jet1

Nein! Germany rejects Trump's call for ground troops in Syria to replace Americans


DW
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 17:02 UTC
ECR Tornado
Germany has rejected a US request for German ground troops to move into Syria.

German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said on Monday that Germany would not increase its military presence in the country.

On Friday, the US had called for Germany to send ground troops into Syria.

"When I say that the government intends to continue with its ongoing measures in the framework of the anti-IS coalition, then that means no ground troops," Seibert said.

'Significant military contribution'

The German military currently provides reconnaissance jets, a refueling aircraft and other non-combat military assistance in the fight against IS.

Germany has "for years been making a significant and internationally acknowledged contribution" to fighting Islamic State, Seibert said.

The US has called for European countries, including the UK, France and Germany, to pledge more support to the fight against Islamic State.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

Syria: Is Turkey winding down its support of terror?

Steve Brown
The Duran
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Syria destruction
Our report, 'Syria Boils Over While Iran Heats Up' covered the recent resurgence of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in its attempt to breakout from Idlib in the north, while the National Front for Liberation (NLF) has renewed attacks near Deir Ezzor. The NLF is primarily supported by Turkey. The renewed attacks by takfiri terror groups in the north and south have caused Russian security forces and local government forces to respond.

Commander Miraj Ural also known as Ali Kayali of the pro-government Popular Front for the Liberation of Iskenderun was seriously wounded in an attempted assassination attack on July 5th, the attack reportedly led by Captain Naji Mustafa of Ajabha Alwataniya Lil Tahrir of the NLF.

Ali Kayali is accused of war crimes, but according to local reports, Commander Ural has done much to prevent Turkish-sponsored terrorists (NLF) from maintaining their base in Latakia. While the temporary loss of Commander Ural may pose a minor setback for the Syrian government, the greater point is about the general outbreak of new hostilities in the northwest.

The concern is that HTS and NLF terror militias have been allowed to re-group and re-arm by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, on behalf of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, subsequent to an uneasy truce agreed for Idlib last year.
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Better Earth

Germany says it needs Nord Stream 2, denies being captive to Russian energy supplies


RT
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 16:45 UTC
baltic pipelay
© GLobal look Press / Nord Steram 2
The pipelay vessels in the Baltic Sea
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is one of the ways for Germany to meet its growing energy demand, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has said, rebuffing criticism that the project increases Russia's energy leverage on Berlin.

Germany will have an increased demand for natural gas, as the country is phasing out coal and nuclear power, the minister said in an interview to Bild shortly before his trip to the US - one of the most vocal critics of the Nord Stream 2 project.


Comment: That's the problem right there. Why phase out nuclear in the first place? It's cheaper and more efficient. But regardless of the motivation there, Altmaier is right: Germany needs more natural gas. Russia has it. So they're engaging in a mutually beneficial transaction. All the hysteria over the fact that it's Russia is just that: hysteria.


"We do not depend on Russia. It is about shortening delivery routes and creating new supply structures," Altmaier said. He added that the completion of the pipeline, designed to deliver Russian gas to Europe, serves the same purpose as building new terminals for American liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the country.

The statement came as the Nord Stream 2 received another barrage of criticism, this time from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). On Sunday, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's committee adopted a resolution against the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream projects, labeling them a tool that Moscow could allegedly use for its political purposes.


Comment: Cue the pearl clutching.

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Chess

Witnesses in FISA abuse probe agree to talk to DOJ inspector general

Catherine Herridge & Cyd Upson
Fox News
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 09:45 UTC
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz
© Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz looks on as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Examining the Inspector General's First Report on Justice Department and FBI Actions in Advance of the 2016 Presidential Election" in the Hart Senate Office Building on June 18, 2018, on Capitol Hill.
Key witnesses sought for questioning by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz early in his investigation into alleged government surveillance abuse have come forward at the 11th hour, Fox News has learned.

Sources familiar with the matter said at least one witness outside the Justice Department and FBI started cooperating -- a breakthrough that came after Attorney General William Barr ordered U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead a separate investigation into the origins of the bureau's 2016 Russia case that laid the foundation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

While the investigative phase of the inspector general's long-running probe is said to be complete, the sources said recent developments required some witnesses to be reinterviewed. And while Barr testified that he expected the report into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse to be ready in May or last month, multiple sources said the timeline has slipped.
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Eye 1

The Kafkaesque nightmare of Julian Assange and Chris Williamson

Neil Clark
Sputnik
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 09:45 UTC
Julian Assange
© Sputnik / Demond Cureton
'Someone must have been slandering Josef K, for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested'.

A few days ago, on 3rd July, Julian Assange celebrated his 48th birthday, if 'celebrated' is a word that can be used for a man in his predicament.

By a strange coincidence, the imprisoned journalist shares his birthday with Franz Kafka, a man who knew all about persecution.

In his classic novel The Trial, Kafka tells the story of one Josef K, a man who awakes one morning to find himself under arrest for a crime which is not revealed to him. The parallels with Julian Assange's plight are unsettling.
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Star of David

Fake history with real consequences: Israel's Third Temple movement rebrands theocracy as "civil rights"

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 20:15 UTC
Knesset Yehuda Glick Al Aqsa Mosque
© Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press
Israeli Knesset member Yehuda Glick, center, speaks to journalists after visiting at the compound in Jerusalem, Aug. 29, 2017.
In a troubling trend that continues to be overlooked by international media, the Temple Activist movement that seeks to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and replace it with a Third Temple continues to advance its agenda. The movement's forward progress is largely thanks to its successful efforts in recent years to rebrand as a "civil rights" movement — securing support from secular and religious Zionists alike — as well as to growing levels of support in Israel's executive and legislative branches of government.

As was detailed in Part I of this series, the Temple Activist movement is now more mainstream than ever before and its effort to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam, has advanced with great rapidity since the year began and has picked up precipitously in recent weeks. Yet this new face of the Temple Activist movement — one that claims that its quest is to wrest control of the holy site from Jordanian and Palestinian custody in the name of "equal rights" for Israeli Jews — obfuscates the troubling origins of this once-fringe yet now normalized campaign.

Comment: Judaism is built on a pile of myths and frauds that fanatics are willing to start a war over.

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TV

EU's 'Russian meddling' alert system "at risk of becoming defunct" - because there isn't any


RT
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 01:30 UTC
eu flag
© Reuters / Yves Herman
The EU's Rapid Alert System, created to tackle 'Russian meddling', hasn't sounded a single alarm in the six months of its existence, a report has found.

In a piece on the struggles of the ambitious project, the New York Times cited an inside joke popular in Brussels before the European Parliament election in May about the Rapid Alert System: "It's not rapid. There are no alerts. And there's no system."


Comment: It's just a shameless smear tactic.


The system has never issued any warnings, the NYT reports, but not before setting the mood by talking about how "Russian efforts metastasized" during the 2016 election in the US, how analysts spotted "unmistakable signs" of the Kremlin's hand in an Austrian political scandal, and quoting EU officials who speak of "continued and sustained disinformation activity from Russian sources."

Comment: See also:

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Penis Pump

British oil tanker slows to 'adjust its arrival time', authorities wrongly blame Iran

Basit Mahmood
Metro
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 21:25 UTC
british tanker pacific voyager
© Getty
The British registered tanker appeared to veer off course, as it slowed to a stop and began drifting south in the Persian Gulf
A British registered tanker which began drifting off the coast of Iran caused a major scare this morning, with fears that Iranian forces had boarded the vessel.

The Pacific Voyager tanker was en-route from Singapore to Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, when it slowed down and stopped around 6am today.

Iranian officials denied that they had boarded the boat.

Earlier in the week, Royal Marines Commandos boarded the Panamanian-flagged Grace 1, as it passed by Gibraltar. The supertanker, which is owned by Iran, is suspected of carrying crude oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.


Comment: It's obvious who the aggressor is here; Iranian forces did not even board the UK's Pacific Voyager whereas British forces have detained Iran's Grace 1.


Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council and a commander in the Revolutionary Guards, said it was Iran's 'duty' to retaliate following the interception of the Grace 1 tanker by Royal Marines and Gibraltar police on Thursday.

Comment: It makes for hysterical headlines but it's all a rather feeble attempt by the US and EU to antagonize Iran. They can't detain all the oil shipments, and, in the end, Russia and China, allies of Iran and Syria, won't stand for it forever, and they'll be forced to join in the retaliation if the West carries on like this:

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