Puppet Masters
"It is we who do not want to have anything to do with Merkel and with Emmanuel Macron and with those who have ruined this Union," he said in San Severo, according to Libero Quotidiano.
"We want to save Europe, which is not that of bureaucrats, bankers, financiers and those who have ruined it in recent years," he said.
Salvini is leader of the right-wing League, which is in coalition with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement. But he has quickly become the de facto face of the government abroad in his role as interior minister, often overshadowing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, as he has fought to cut immigration from Africa and has formed alliances with other nationalists abroad.
"A really bad situation," Trump tweeted Friday. "TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!"
FBI Director Chris Wray said earlier this month he did not consider the surveillance to be "spying" and he had no evidence the bureau illegally surveilled Trump's campaign during its investigation into potential collusion between the campaign and Russia.
The White House said it was appropriate to terminate Turkey's eligibility to participate in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, based on its level of economic development. The decision is effective May 17, it added.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in early March said Turkey was no longer eligible to participate because it "is sufficiently economically developed." It had begun reviewing the NATO ally's status in the program last August when the two countries were embroiled in a diplomatic row.
But Ankara had been hopeful that Washington would not go ahead with the decision, saying it would be against the $75 billion target for mutual trade laid out by President Donald Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The GNA is losing, they and their terrorists are losing to the LIBYAN PEOPLE. The Libyan National Army, supported by all the great tribes of Libya (representing the Libyan people) is cleansing Tripoli of Terrorists. That list includes the GNA headed by Fayez al Serraj.
The GNA was put in place in Libya by the Khazarian mafia Zionists (New World Order - responsible for NATO destruction in 2011) to maintain control of Libya's resources and keep the Libyan people oppressed and without their sovereignty. The GNA (Serraj) has been stealing money from the Libyan central bank to pay mercenaries and terrorist militias, there is ample proof of this fact. Meanwhile the Libyan people suffer with little food, poor medical, bad water, no electricity etc. Absolutely, nothing has been done by this phony, illegitimate GNA for the Libyan people. However, many foreign countries have been allowed to steal Libyan resources with the blessings of the GNA. France has been mining Libyan gold illegally, Italy steals Libyan natural gas and much of Libya's oil is sent to Israel without proper payment.
"I'm sure that Iran will want to talk soon," Trump wrote on Twitter on May 15 without elaborating.
Trump's remarks follow comments he made on May 9 when he said he did not rule out a military confrontation with Iran. But he added, "What I would like to see with Iran, I would like to see them call me."
Iranian leaders responded by rejecting any talks with Washington.
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the party of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is in a perilous situation at the moment. Two months ago political newcomers from Forum for Democracy (FvD) crushed the centrist ruling coalition in provincial elections.
Next week Dutch voters choose their representatives at the European Parliament and Prime Minister Rutte and his people have apparently decided it's time to unpack the ultimate weapon: red-baiting.
A political ad published by VVD on Thursday tells the Dutch they shouldn't vote for FvD because its leader Thierry Baudet ... wants to hand the Netherlands over to Vladimir Putin. Why? Because Baudet, is in love with the Russian president - at least that's what the cartoonish popping out eyes, with hearts in them and the hashtag #Kremlincrush imply.
Comment: The Dutch are obviously taking a page from America's playbook. No matter how spurious the claims, the goal is for it to stick in the minds of the voting populace.
Note the similarity of the refrain "...but all our military intelligence agencies say it is so..."
No to Christchurch Call: Put aside your hate of Trump for a day - he may have just saved free speech
Ironically, by becoming the sole leader of a major Western power to reject the 'Christchurch Call' - the cross-border plan to restrict "terrorist and extremist" content online - Donald Trump has consolidated support for the document, sparing it deserved scrutiny.
After all, who doesn't want to stop violence being spread through social media, particularly in the wake of the double mosque shooting in New Zealand in March? Well - judging by the commentary in mainstream media outlets - only that exceptionalist US president, and that band of white supremacists on whom he is relying to win in 2020.
But I would urge those of all political persuasions to study the text of the document, presented by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron in Paris this week, and endorsed by every major US online giant - Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter.
Are these really the powers you want to give away to officials and Silicon Valley execs? Or should we at least ask some clarifying questions first?
The French leader said that US policies, in fact, fall short of being a paragon of democracy - at least when it comes to regulating the field of modern technology - as big business has seemingly too much of a say in formulating Washington's approaches in this sphere.
"The United States is a formidable continent but they have a model which is completely steered by big private sector players and which is no longer subject to democratic checks and balances," Macron said at a question and answer session at a technology forum in Paris, where he championed the idea of protecting European companies from being devoured by foreign, and particularly US, corporate giants.
The French president did not stop at that and added that such a laissez-faire approach has led to a situation, in which America does not in fact have a government that is capable of guaranteeing its citizens' privacy rights at the face of corporate privacy intrusion. He was also equally critical of the Chinese regulation model by calling it over-restrictive.
Ukraine, a U.S. ally and neighboring foe of Russia, is soon to find out. And it's a case with implications in the United States, where the fallout from the unproven Trump-Russia collusion scandal has engulfed several Ukrainians.
The country's chief corruption prosecutor on Thursday opened an investigation into "suspicions" that Serhiy Leshchenko, a crusading anti-corruption member of Ukraine's parliament and former investigative journalist, accepted bribes in 2016 from a Russian source that enabled him to buy a luxury condo far above his means.
Leshchenko previously has denied any wrongdoing. The 2016 purchase of his condo was investigated once before and he was cleared of criminality. Now, however, the allegation of foreign bribe money adds an element.
All the US war rhetoric and war plans are making these nations uncomfortable. European militaries are looking to rapidly disentangle themselves from the US military before a shooting war starts.
Germany and the Netherlands were both quick to suspend military missions in Iraq, citing a generally heightened level of tensions, but no concrete threat posed by Iran. Spain was even more dramatic in extricating itself from US involvement, withdrawing a frigate from the US-led carrier strike group that officials deployed to the Persian Gulf.















Comment: Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official described Trump's tactics as "like holding a gun at someone and asking for friendship and negotiations" and that the US military buildup in the ME is "psychological warfare".