Puppet Masters

Seizure of Caracas' oil assets by US endangers lives of sick Venezuelan kids treated abroad - FM

RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:25 UTC

Venezuela's foreign minister has said that the freezing of some $7 billion in assets belonging to the Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA in the US has made it impossible to pay for the treatment of young transplant patients abroad.

The crippling US sanctions and economic embargo that has been in place for several years have already cost the Venezuelan economy a staggering $130 billion since 2015, and now threaten to cut short the lives of at least five young patients that have received liver transplants in Argentina and are in need of costly post-surgery treatment. They cannot afford it due to the blockage of PDVSA funds by Washington, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said.

"The criminal US financial blockade on Venezuela risks the lives of Venezuelan children that received transplants in Argentina thanks to the support of PDVSA," Arreaza tweeted on Tuesday, adding that it "has been impossible" to transfer the necessary funds to proceed with the ailing children's treatment.

UN disarmament chief says risks of nuclear-weapons use 'higher than at any time since WWII' thanks to Western aggression

RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:15 UTC

The director of the UN disarmament think tank has said that the risks of a nuclear strike are now higher than ever since the World War II ended, partially due to the erosion of old arms control mechanisms.

Renata Dwan, director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), an autonomous institution set up by the UN General Assembly in 1980 to assess risks to international security arising from militarization, told Reuters in an interview that the world has never been closer to crossing the nuclear threshold since the end of the WWII.

"I think that it's genuinely a call to recognize - and this has been somewhat missing in the media coverage of the issues - that the risks of nuclear war are particularly high now, and the risks of the use of nuclear weapons are higher now than at any time since World War II," Dwan said.

The growing likelihood of a nuclear attack brought about the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding agreement prohibiting all types of nuclear weapons as well as their transfer, stationing and threat of use. The treaty passed by the UN General Assembly by a majority of votes in July 2017, with all nuclear weapons states abstaining from the vote and only one NATO member, the Netherlands, taking part in the procedure but voting against.

Imperial puppet Trudeau warns China against 'arbitrary detention'... as Canada holds abducted Huawei CFO as bargaining chip in dirty trade war

RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:11 UTC

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has called on the West to counter China's "aggression," as Ottawa tries to get back two alleged spies arrested by Beijing. Canada, meanwhile, is working to extradite a Huawei executive to the US.

"China is making stronger moves than it has before to try and get its own way on the world stage," Trudeau complained to a press conference on Tuesday after he was asked about two Canadian citizens currently imprisoned in China on espionage charges. He claimed the prisoners were being held for political reasons and warned China the whole world was watching.

While Canada has denounced China's detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor as arbitrary and illegal, and the US has piled on with support for its northern neighbor, the Canadian government earlier this month granted authorization to the US to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who faces 23 counts of bank and wire fraud and theft of technology in the US. Prosecutors have admitted the US government surveilled Meng extensively under FISA, hoping to find evidence she (and by extension Huawei) were acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

Garbage War: Duterte threatens to dump Canadian trash on its shoreline if they don't pick it up from the Philippines

RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 14:56 UTC

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered containers of trash from Canada to be shipped back. The "uncompromising" leader threatened to leave it in Canadian waters if Ottawa refuses to take it back, a spokesman has said.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Salvador Panelo said Duterte had been left "upset" by Ottawa's "inordinate delay" in receiving the waste, after they missed an agreed deadline of May 15. Officials are now looking to hire a private shipping firm to facilitate the immediate return of the waste, with Manilla covering the expenses.

Comment: See also:

Top Chinese CCTV manufacturers Hikvision & Dahua named as next US blacklist targets

RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 14:50 UTC

Two of the world's largest video surveillance products manufacturers, China's Hikvision and Dahua, are likely to follow Huawei onto the US blacklist, according to reports. The sanction may be announced "in the coming weeks."

Washington is considering denying more Chinese companies a share of the US market. Limiting access to American technology is being considered for the surveillance equipment giant Hangzhou Hikvision, the New York Times reported. A later Bloomberg report included up to four more companies on the list of potential outcasts, including China's second largest producer of surveillance equipment, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co.

Beijing has criticized the move and said it won't let Washington smear Chinese companies. The Foreign Ministry of China has called for a fair and equal environment for its businesses in the US.

Acting US Sec Def: Potential for attacks on Americans in Middle East "put on hold"

Idrees Ali
Reuters
Tue, 21 May 2019 19:39 UTC

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Tuesday that while the threat from Iran in the region remains high, the potential for attacks on Americans had been "put on hold."

"I think our steps were very prudent and we've put on hold the potential for attacks on Americans and that is what is extremely important," Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon. He did not provide further details.

"I'd say we're in a period where the threat remains high and our job is to make sure that there is no miscalculation by the Iranians," Shanahan added.

Leaked Douma report: Establishment narrative managers struggle with new Syria plot holes

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00 UTC

Elliot Higgins - Idrees Ahmad

It has been about a week since the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) published a leaked internal document from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigation into an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria last year. The document, whose authenticity the OPCW has confirmed, contends that the official story which was used to justify an air strike by the US, UK and France about poison gas being dropped on civilians from Syrian government helicopters is scientifically implausible, saying "In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft."

The document, titled "Engineering Assessment of Two Cylinders Observed at the Douma Incident", was signed by a man named Ian Henderson, whose name is seen listed in expert leadership positions on OPCW documents from as far back as 1998 and as recently as 2018. The OPCW hid this information from the public, for reasons it has yet to attempt to justify.

Comment: See also:

Huawei founder: Clash with the US was 'inevitable'

Li Tao
South China Morning Post
Tue, 21 May 2019 00:00 UTC

Huawei CEO said he foresaw the confrontation with Washington because its aim to be global leader threatened US interests
Ren Zhengfei said US trade restrictions have no impact on Huawei's 5G plans as rivals cannot catch up within two to three years

© AP
Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei, said US trade restrictions have no impact on the Chinese tech giant’s 5G plans.

Huawei Technologies founder Ren Zhengfei said he foresaw the clash with the US government, saying it was a matter of time before the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker threatened US interests and attracted retaliation.

"We sacrificed [the interests of] individuals and families for the sake of an ideal, to stand at the top of the world," Ren said in interview with Chinese state media on Tuesday. "For this ideal, there will be conflict with the United States sooner or later."

The US government last week placed Huawei and its affiliates on a trade black list that restricted the Shenzhen-based company from buying services and parts from US companies without approval. US President Donald Trump also signed an executive order barring US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms posing a national security risk. The move was widely perceived in China as the US trying to contain the rise of its technological capabilities.

Comment: See also:

US offers temporary waivers, Huawei declares 'service will not be affected'

Danny Crichton
Tech Crunch
Wed, 22 May 2019 10:00 UTC

Two steps forward, one step back.

The Trump administration has seemingly been trying to calibrate its strategy around its intensifying trade dispute with China. Last week, it effectively banned Huawei from importing U.S. technology, a decision that forced several American companies, including Google, to partly sever their relationships with the Chinese handset and telecom provider.

Now, in an unpublished draft of a note in the Federal Register, the Department of Commerce and its Bureau of Industry and Security announced that Huawei would receive a "90-day temporary general license" to continue to use U.S. technology that it already has a license to. New technology and mobile phone models requiring new licenses would still need to apply for them - and those licenses are unlikely to be approved, according to Reuters.

Reasons for the drawback are unclear. One answer might be the impact on American jobs. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech industry-backed research group, argued in a new report today that export controls could cost up to $56.3 billion in damage to the U.S. economy and up to 74,000 jobs, depending on their scale. Obviously, the tech industry is mostly opposed to new tariffs or export controls, and the Trump administration has made American jobs a centerpiece of its domestic policy agenda.

Comment: Perhaps because of waivers like these - as have occurred repeatedly in the US' sanctioning of the world and that show just how weak its position is - Huawei has stated quite openly it's not so concerned about the blacklisting:

Huawei's 5G 'will absolutely not be affected' by US blacklist, founder says

Huawei isn't going away just because the US government has tried to ban it from its markets, company founder Ren Zhengfei has said, declaring that the Trump administration "underestimates our strength."

"Huawei's 5G will absolutely not be affected" by the Commerce Department's ban on selling or transferring US technology to the company, Ren told Chinese state media. "In terms of 5G technologies, others won't be able to catch up with Huawei in two or three years."

The 90-day grace period before Huawei is officially blacklisted from doing business with US companies does not have much impact on the company, Ren claimed, adding: "We are ready."

A Huawei spokesperson assured reporters that nothing would change for US residents with Huawei devices, or even those planning to buy a device in the future - possibly because the Chinese firm is already in talks with Google on how to manage the ban.

Huawei has bracing for such a ban after the company watched fellow Chinese telecom ZTE struggle with a similar blacklisting maneuver last year. Unable to do business with US firms and unable to fill the equipment void itself, ZTE closed its doors for four months, throwing itself on the mercy of the US government and reopening its business more than $1 billion poorer. Not so for Huawei: not only has it been developing its own mobile operating system since 2012 to break dependence on Google's Android, but it already makes half the chips used in its devices.

"We cannot be isolated from the world," Ren boasted, adding that while Huawei was at odds with the US government, it was not the enemy of US companies.

While Trump's emergency order last week did not mention China or Huawei by name, it clearly targets both, giving the Secretary of Commerce the right to block any activity posing an "unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons." The Commerce Department then moved to blacklist Huawei and 68 related companies from doing business with US firms.

The US has tried to convince its allies that Huawei is an unconscionable security risk, feeding information directly to the Chinese government through backdoors in its equipment. For its part, Huawei has accused the US of discrimination, claiming American telecoms cannot handle competition and pointing out the US' own record of backdooring allies' communications. Washington's efforts to convince the EU and its member nations to bar Huawei from their 5G networks have failed so far - although Australia has agreed to adopt such a ban.

The battle over Huawei reflects the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Both countries have slapped additional tariffs onto the other's exports after trade talks fell apart earlier this month, and Trump has threatened to dramatically expand the categories of goods taxed this summer.

House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Hope Hicks, Annie Donaldson

Stephen Dinan
Washington Times
Wed, 22 May 2019 10:22 UTC

© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler issued subpoenas Tuesday to Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson, both former Trump White House employees, demanding they turn over documents he's seeking from their time working for the president's team.

They were among the 81 persons or entities in the Trump orbit that Mr. Nadler demanded documents from earlier this year.

Mr. Nadler said he wants both documents and testimony from Ms. Hicks, who served as the president's communications chief, and Ms. Donaldson, who was chief of staff to former White House Counsel Don McGahn.

"I have issued these subpoenas today to two critical witnesses who have worked closely with the president," Mr. Nadler said. "We are seeking the information in order to conduct proper oversight, consider potential legislation and perform our constitutional duties."

She's better off dead. The ones that die quickly are the lucky ones. Cancers, chronic pain and exhaustion? No thanks.

DeliciousTears

Here's what lithium ion batteries also do. [Link] R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

She always looks like she's having a painful bowel movement, and is trying very hard to do it silently.

Eventide

Parzival. [Link] Documentary on who owns everything and the current situation and intention NWO. Good summary.

Joyly

"Obama's job is to lie to a nation of liars". Kiese Laymon "the amerikan liberal wants to preserve the essence of the past--the amerikan...

smertzasmert

Puppet Masters

Seizure of Caracas' oil assets by US endangers lives of sick Venezuelan kids treated abroad - FM

UN disarmament chief says risks of nuclear-weapons use 'higher than at any time since WWII' thanks to Western aggression

Imperial puppet Trudeau warns China against 'arbitrary detention'... as Canada holds abducted Huawei CFO as bargaining chip in dirty trade war

Garbage War: Duterte threatens to dump Canadian trash on its shoreline if they don't pick it up from the Philippines

Top Chinese CCTV manufacturers Hikvision & Dahua named as next US blacklist targets

Acting US Sec Def: Potential for attacks on Americans in Middle East "put on hold"

Leaked Douma report: Establishment narrative managers struggle with new Syria plot holes

Huawei founder: Clash with the US was 'inevitable'

US offers temporary waivers, Huawei declares 'service will not be affected'

House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Hope Hicks, Annie Donaldson

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