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UK heading for another Brexit extension in October - Juncker

Daniel Boffey
Guardian
Thu, 23 May 2019 08:13 UTC
may juncker
© John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
'It seems more important to replace the prime minister than to find an agreement,' Juncker said, describing May as a 'very tough person'.
Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested that the UK is drifting towards another Brexit extension in October as he criticised MPs for prioritising the prime minister's removal over finding agreement on a Brexit deal.

With May appearing on the brink of resignation, the European commission president spoke of his admiration for her resilience and his disdain for the attempts to remove her.

"What I don't like in the British debate is it seems more important to replace the prime minister than to find an agreement among themselves," Juncker said in an interview with CNN. "This is a woman who knows how to do things but she is unable to succeed in doing things. I like her very much; she is a tough person."

Comment: One would think that for an event of such import as leaving the EU it's critical to have the best leader to execute the job - should it actually ever come to pass - although, considering some of the potential leadership candidates, that's probably hoping for too much:

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Chess

Modi's 'landslide' reelection will cement India's multi-aligned foreign policy

Brahma Chellaney
RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 10:05 UTC
Modi
© AFP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landslide win in national elections represents a fresh mandate for him to reinvent India as a more secure, confident and competitive country and forge closer ties with natural allies.

Modi's second five-year term in office will help cement India's multi-aligned foreign policy, which has sought to build close partnerships with all powers central to long-term Indian interests.

Domestically, Modi's big win has averted a nightmare scenario for Indian democracy - an indecisive election verdict fostering political paralysis. Faced with a choice between a stable, firm government and a possible retreat to political drift, voters in the world's largest democracy reposed their faith in Modi and his Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party, or BJP.

Comment: The author give a somewhat paranoid account of his Chinese influence, neglecting India's role in making the region 'combustible' by cementing military ties with the US, and says nothing positive about the One Belt One Road, which has become an engine of growth in the region.

However, it is rational for India to view Chinese influence skeptically, due to both the history between the two countries, and their conflicting desires to wield maximum regional influence.

As Darius Shahtahmasebi recently wrote:
[I]n the years to come, India and China will continue to have monumental modes of disagreement as long as they continue to exist on each other's borders and continue to bear the same desire for regional influence. However, it would appear that the two nations have taken steps to address their disputes and find ways in which to cool the otherwise volatile relationship down, such as the suggested cooperation on places like Afghanistan.

The other wildcard variable to take into account when analyzing what 2019 could potentially have in store for Sino-Indian relations is Trump's trade war with China, which could put India at an even greater advantage over China.

Yet at the same time, India, much like the rest of the world, is beginning to learn that the United States is no longer the reliable partner that many countries thought it once was, and that it cannot rely on Washington to mitigate its concerns against rivals such as China.
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Snakes in Suits

Ex-FBI lawyer details 'unusual way' McCabe, Yates & Baker approved Carter Page FISA application

Jerry Dunleavy
Washington Examiner
Sat, 25 May 2019 10:05 UTC
Carter Page
© Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
One-time advisor of Donald Trump Carter Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, December 12, 2016.
A former top lawyer for the FBI described to lawmakers the "unusual" way the surveillance request targeting former Trump campaign associate Carter Page was handled by top leadership at the Justice Department and FBI, according to a transcript released this week.

In front of a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Aug. 31, 2018, former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson said she was normally responsible for signing off on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications before they reached the desk of her superiors for approval. Anderson said the "linear path" those applications typically take was upended in October 2016, with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates signing off on the application before she did. Because of that unusual high-level involvement, she didn't see the need to "second guess" the FISA application.

The Page FISA application was filed by the Justice Department and FBI with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in October 2016. A surveillance warrant was granted and three renewals were subsequently approved. The FISA application relied heavily on unverified research in British ex-spy Christopher Steele's dossier on President Trump's ties to Russia, which was compiled through his employment with opposition research firm Fusion GPS with funding from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
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Whistle

Welcome to Western democracy: Soros 'NGO' threatens new Ukrainian president with disturbing list of 'red lines'

Danielle Ryan
RT
Fri, 24 May 2019 19:33 UTC
Zelenskiy
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
When President Volodymyr Zelensky won a landslide victory in the free and undisputed April elections, most accepted that he was given a fairly strong mandate to lead Ukraine. But it seems not everyone is so democratically-minded.

Particularly unmoved by the democratic process are a collection of Ukrainian 'civil society' groups, who have just issued a lengthy list of "red lines not to be crossed" by the new president, lest he risk provoking a new wave of political instability - that they would presumably instigate.

Issuing their catalog of demands on Thursday, the groups claim to be "politically neutral" but "deeply concerned" about the first actions taken by the comedian-turned-politician Zelensky, including his decision to appoint members of former President Viktor Yanukovych's government to positions within his own government.

Comment: Ukraine thus joins the rest of the West in having the coherent democratic will of three quarters or so of its population being told 'nyet' by a minority of deviant elites who will - as we've seen so far in France - crush them if they dare defy them.

The US imperialists and their ramified networks across Globalistan now 'own' Ukraine, so, while democracy is all well and nice, Zelensky is being reminded that his mandate is what they tell him to do. If he doesn't, they'll whip up political instability and force him out.

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Eye 2

The western media is key to understanding the Syria deceptions

Jonathan Cook
jonathan-cook.net
Fri, 24 May 2019 21:04 UTC
Syria war destruction
© Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images
Syria’s north-west.
By any reckoning, the claim made this week by al-Qaeda-linked fighters that they were targeted with chemical weapons by the Syrian government in Idlib province - their final holdout in Syria - should have been treated by the western media with a high degree of scepticism.

That the US and other western governments enthusiastically picked up those claims should not have made them any more credible.

Scepticism was all the more warranted from the media given that no physical evidence has yet been produced to corroborate the jihadists' claims. And the media should have been warier still given that the Syrian government was already poised to defeat these al-Qaeda groups without resort to chemical weapons - and without provoking the predictable ire (yet again) of the west.
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Bomb

Bomb-attacks by terrorists kill 5 people at 2 mosques during Friday prayers in Afghanistan and Pakistan


Sott.net
Fri, 24 May 2019 22:35 UTC

Comment: Which is more likely:

1.) Unknown Islamists (that is, they're pro-Islam, ardently so) terrorists blow up two mosques with pre-placed bombs in two different countries at the same time, for no apparent gain, or
2.) A 'third force' directs terrorists whose atrocities target all 'sides' within target countries, thus keeping them under a 'strategy of tension', disincentivizing foreign investment and development, and providing 'markets' in which foreign mercenaries - usually Western - can 'sell' their expertise, i.e. killing people?


3 killed, 30+ injured after blast rocked mosque full of Friday worshippers in Afghan capital

RT, 24 May, 2019
bomb attack kabul mosque
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Afghan security forces keep watch outside a mosque where a blast happened in Kabul, Afghanistan May 24, 2019.
Three people have been killed and 32 others injured as an explosion rocked a mosque full of people during Friday prayers in the Afghan capital Kabul, according to health officials.

The death toll in the attack in Kabul was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health.

One of the people killed in the attack has been confirmed as well-known religious scholar imam Mawlawi Samiullah Raihan. The cleric was known for supporting the Western-backed Afghan government, which is opposed by Taliban militants.

The bomb was apparently planted in the microphone used by the imam, according to Jan Agha, a district police official.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the mosque attack as a terrorist act.

Comment: Two pre-placed bombs at the pulpits of two mosques, detonated at the same time, during Friday prayers, in Kabul and Pakistan. And no one claims responsibility for either...

Al Jazeera has additional info about today's bombing in Pakistan:
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and least populated province that is also rich in mineral and fuel resources.

It has seen regular violence in recent years, with attacks claimed by Baloch separatists, Pakistan Taliban and local affiliates of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS).

The province has been at the centre of a series of recent attacks that have killed at least 10 people.

Last week, at least four policemen died when their vehicles were targeted by an explosion as they stood guard outside a mosque during evening prayers.

On May 12, Baloch separatist attackers stormed a five-star hotel in the southern port city of Gwadar, killing at least five people, including a Navy soldier.

Pakistani security forces engaged in an hours-long gun battle with the attackers, with the siege ending after three attackers were killed.

Balochistan is seeing a number of new infrastructure projects erected, including the port at Gwadar, as part of the $60bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, a joint venture between the Pakistani and Chinese governments.
And who supports these Balochi separatists?

The CIA.

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Info

No one will cry over May's resignation - Russian senator


RT
Fri, 24 May 2019 21:25 UTC
Theresa May
© Reuters / Hannah Mckay
The resignation of British PM Theresa May doesn't mean much for Russia as the future of relations between the countries depend on who will take her post, a senior Russian lawmaker said.

"I don't think that anyone here [in Russia] will be upset about May's leaving," Senator Konstantin Kosachev said, pointing out that May's premiership would be remembered for its "highly likely" approach," meaning unproven accusations against Russia in the infamous Skripal case, which led to the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats from the UK and other countries.

Kosachev referred to May's statement claiming that Russia was "highly likely" behind the assassination attempt on former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March 2018 in Salisbury, England.
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Whistle

Real journalists react to Assange Espionage Act charges: 'Modern fascism is breaking cover'


RT
Fri, 24 May 2019 20:32 UTC
assange protest whistleblower
© Reuters / Henry Nicholls
The US government's indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom.

The new indictment claims Assange endangered the lives of individuals working for the US government when Wikileaks published leaked documents received from intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010. Under the draconian Espionage Act, which has never before been used against a journalist publishing classified information, Assange faces up to 10 years in prison for each charge.

"Assange was complicit with Chelsea Manning...in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense," the Department of Justice said in a statement, while National Security Division head John Demers insisted "Julian Assange is no journalist."

Comment: Anyone even half paying attention would have seen this coming. What is amazing is how the mainstream media has seemingly been able to overlook such an obvious progression. Did they really think cozying up to the Deep State would keep them safe in the long run? Even Rachel Maddow, who has built her MSM/Deep State cred beating the Wikileaks/Russiagate drums for years now, has woken up to the danger:

Getting a clue: Lamestream media's professional Assange bashers finally realize their fate is tied to his

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Alarm Clock

Getting a clue: Lamestream media's professional Assange bashers finally realize their fate is tied to his

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Fri, 24 May 2019 19:00 UTC
rachel maddow wikileaks
© MSNBC
Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow has aired a segment condemning the new indictment against Julian Assange for 17 alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Yes, that Rachel Maddow.

MSNBC's top host began the segment after it was introduced by Chris Hayes, agreeing with her colleague that it's surprising that more news outlets aren't giving this story more "wall to wall" coverage, given its immense significance. She recapped Assange's various legal struggles up until this point, then accurately described Assange's new Espionage Act charges for publishing secret documents.

"And these new charges are not about stealing classified information or outsmarting computer systems in order to illegally obtain classified information," Maddow said. "It's not about that. These new charges are trying to prosecute Assange for publishing that stolen, secret material which was obtained by somebody else. And that is a whole different kettle of fish then what he was initially charged with."
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Attention

Just 5 months into his term of office, 'impeach Bolsonaro' talk has already begun

Raymond Colitt, Samy Adghirni, Simone Iglesias
Bloomberg
Fri, 24 May 2019 05:00 UTC
Jair Bolsonaro
© Andre Coelho/Bloomberg
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
Earlier this month, a procession of Brazil's military cabinet ministers came to President Jair Bolsonaro with the same clear message: muzzle your far-right keyboard warriors or your government will implode.

Propelled to the presidency by a vociferous army of online ideologues, including his sons, Bolsonaro's government comprises an uneasy mix of radicals, pragmatists and economic liberals. In his five months in office, Bolsonaro has done little to rein in the extremist fringe, even when they target Congress, the Supreme Court and members of his own administration. The former members of the armed forces, who make up a third of his cabinet and constitute the moderate faction, have endured particularly vicious abuse.

Since the retired generals' intervention, the public mud-slinging has ebbed a little, but the sense of division and improvisation in government has not. Bolsonaro's approval ratings are sliding fast, while prominent erstwhile supporters who hoped for clean, decisive government have recanted, and legislators are beginning to jump ship. Even in financial markets, which helped carry the retired paratrooper to office, hope is fizzling. The real earlier this week reached an 8-month low. The presidency did not respond to a request for comment.

Comment: See also:

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