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Former Italian minister Matteo Salvini to face trial over standoff with migrant rescue ship


The Guardian
Sat, 17 Apr 2021 17:06 UTC
Matteo Salvini

Matteo Salvini
A judge in Sicily has ordered the former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial for refusing to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people at sea for days.

Judge Lorenzo Iannelli set 15 September as the trial date during a court hearing in Palermo, LaPresse news agency reported.

Salvini, who attended the hearing, confirmed the outcome and said he was only doing his job and his duty by refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship and the 147 people it had rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.

Citing the Italian constitution, Salvini tweeted that defending the country was the "sacred duty" of every Italian. "I'm going on trial for this, for having defended my country?" he said. "I'll go with my head held high, also in your name."

Comment: A look back:

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Eye 2

Maxine Waters caught ranting about the Derek Chauvin trial. How is this not inciting violence? How is it not jury intimidation?

Doc Holliday
Not the Bee
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 16:53 UTC
maxine waters not happy

Maxine Waters
Watch this clip of Maxine Waters talking about the Derek Chauvin trial. How is this not inciting violence? How is it not jury intimidation?

Maxine Waters is a sitting U.S. congressperson standing in a city where rioters have assaulted police and burned buildings and businesses to the ground, and she's calling for MORE violence if the Derek Chauvin verdict doesn't come back the way she wants.


Incredible privilege this woman enjoys, to be able to talk like that with no repercussions.

And the fact that she says George Floyd was a case of first-degree, premeditated murder shows that she has no idea what she's talking about whatsoever.

Despicable!

Comment: The author is right. How DOES this crazy woman continually get a pass?

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MIB

Barack Obama is stepping out of shadows to aid Biden's struggling presidency

Kyle Becker
Becker News
Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Biden and Obama
Former* President Barack Obama is returning to the public limelight to give the Biden administration a much-needed booster.

The extremely disconnected and often absent current president, who is constantly stalked by vice president Kamala Harris, shies away from press conferences and avoids unscripted exchanges with reporters, will be getting Obama's star power to rescue a major Biden administration program.

On Sunday, Obama will be hitting the airwaves on NBC to plug an hour-long endorsement of the Biden vaccine rollout. It has taken a major hiccup with the "pause" of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tied to at least six cases of a rare blood-clotting disorder out of 7 million doses.

"President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will appear in an hour-long NBC special on Sunday aimed at promoting Covid-19 vaccinations as they hope to convince hesitant Americans to get shots," CNN reported.

Not only will Obama show up to fill the empty suit that is the current president, but he will be joined by a slew of celebrities who can't wait to throw their clout behind another Democratic Party program (as if their misleading complaints about the Georgia voter law isn't bad enough).

Comment: RT highlighted that Obama said exactly that with a clip from an interview with Stephen Colbert in December, 2020:


See also:

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Cow Skull

Kerry lunges into India with anti-Belt and Road Initiative agenda bringing green suicide for all

Matthew Ehret
Sott.net
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 18:20 UTC
Kerry in India
Despite the fact that a "Green BRI doppelganger" has been on the books since 2018, the plan was generally acknowledged to be an unworkable green boondoggle and fell out of interest for quite some time. Now it is being revived.

As the China-Russian-Iran alliance continues to gain new momentum spreading win-win cooperation and development across Asia, Africa and the World, the dying unipolar system run by detached militarists, financiers and technocrats is doubling down on its weird mix of 1) a "scorched earth" offensive threat to "dissuade" China and Russia from continuing on their current trajectory and 2) a "positive" green game on which nations are invited to tie their destinies as an alternative to China's BRI.

Everyone reading this should already be aware of the "scorched earth" Full Spectrum dominance policy targeting Russia and China.

However, what is less appreciated even among the most geopolitically savvy anti-imperialists today is what sort of "positive" green game is being deployed to subvert the $3 trillion Belt and Road Initiative which has already won over 136 participating nations and which geopolicians understand to be a mortal threat to their desired world order.

Comment: More on John Kerry - who can be counted on to help implement Washington's very worst and most destructive policies:

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Pumpkin 2

Biden's Russia policy ludicrous, unbelievable, contradictory & unprecedented: First offers Putin summit & then imposes sanctions

Paul Robinson
RT
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:36 UTC
Biden meets Putin
© REUTERS / Alexander Natruskin
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in Moscow March 10, 2011.
Just a month ago, US President Joe Biden indicated he believes his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin is a "killer." But on Tuesday, he spoke to the 'killer' by phone and proposed that the pair meet for a face-to-face summit.

A few weeks is clearly a long time in politics.

So too, it seems, is a couple of days.

For on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that a summit between Biden and Putin would not go ahead in the near future. That does not mean that Moscow has definitively rejected a meeting at some point later, but it is clear that the Kremlin is not inclined to indulge Biden for now.

Peskov's statement followed news that the United States was about to unveil a new set of economic sanctions against Russia, including measures to prevent American financial institutions from buying Moscow's sovereign debt. The US also expelled ten Russian diplomats.

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

Hong Kong billionaire and newspaper tycoon Jimmy Lai gets 12 months in prison for role in anti-Beijing protests


RT
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 11:47 UTC
Jimmy Lai
© REUTERS/Lam Yik
Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying (FILE PHOTO)
A prominent businessman and media tycoon has been jailed for one year by Chinese authorities for organizing and taking part in the unauthorized demonstrations which swept across Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020.

On Friday, Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong billionaire and media tycoon was sentenced to one year in prison. The 73-year-old was one of nine in court on Friday who received sentences for their roles in an anti-Beijing protest which took place on August 18, 2019. Three of the nine also faced charges relating to a demonstration on August 31.

The August 18 protest was one of the largest to rock the former British colony, with an estimated 1.7 million people marching in opposition to a bill which would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial.

Comment: Foreign meddling in Hong Kong is well documented:

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Whistle

Russia BANS FBI & DNI directors in new tit-for-tat sanctions blacklist, US 'laments' escalation - despite Biden starting it


RT
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 19:55 UTC
rice bolton
© Reuters / Evgenina Novozhenina / Jonathan Drake / Gary Cameron
Russia is hitting back against US sanctions, banning the entry of a slew of high-ranking officials after Washington banned a list of bigwigs from Moscow - a move that set the tone in relations with the newly elected US president.

Among the list of US figures blocked from entering Russia from Friday are FBI Director Christopher Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

Others blocked from the country include Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former CIA Director James Woolsey.

Comment: See also:

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Calculator

Google used 'Double Irish' loophole to dodge tens of billions in 2019 taxes


Sputnik
Sat, 17 Apr 2021 22:42 UTC
google
© REUTERS / Clay Mclachlan
Under the now-outlawed "double Irish" tax dodge, corporations transferred their intellectual property to holding companies registered in Ireland but run from tax havens like Bermuda, which siphoned off profits through royalty fees.

Google's European division used the "double Irish" tax haven loophole to dodge tens of billions in tax there and in the US in 2019, newly-filed accounts reveal.

The Big Tech giant took advantage of the sunset clause on the now-defunct corporate tax scheme to avoid tax on profits of $75.4 billion (€63 billion) in payments in both its home country and Ireland.
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Chess

Suu Kyi's allies challenge Myanmar junta with unity government escalating chances of prolonged conflict


Bloomberg
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 09:43 UTC
Myanmar
© AFP/Handout
Protesters are seen in Myanmar.
Close allies of Myanmar's detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi who were ousted in a military coup have joined with ethnic groups to form a new unity government, escalating the chances of a prolonged conflict with the junta.

Detained former President Win Myint and Suu Kyi will retain their positions in the parallel government, which will operate under the terms of a new charter after opponents of the military abolished the country's 2008 constitution.

"For the first time in our history, Myanmar has a unity government that will reflect one of our nation's greatest strengths -- the diversity of our people," Sasa, the unity government's spokesperson who goes by one name, said in a statement released Friday.

Comment: See also: Myanmar's post-coup civilian death toll climbs past 700 as protests, gunfire, and bomb blasts rock the country

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Bad Guys

Czechs announce expulsion of 18 Russian diplomats, as Prague claims 'intel officers' involved in 2014 munitions depot explosion


RT
Sat, 17 Apr 2021 18:07 UTC
Russian embassy
© Reuters / David W Cerny
A national flag of Russia flies on the Russian embassy in Prague.
The Czech Republic says it will expel 18 Russian diplomats, alleging that Russian intelligence officers were involved in a local munitions depot blast in 2014. It comes a day after Moscow said it would expel 10 US diplomats.


Comment: One wonders whether Czech citizens would support their government jeopardizing relations with Russia simply to appease the US?


The move by Prague came amid a diplomatic standoff between Moscow and Washington that began midweek, after US President Joe Biden ordered 10 Russian diplomats out of the country over the Kremlin's alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election and its claimed involvement in last year's SolarWinds cyber-espionage case. More than 30 Russian individuals and organizations were also sanctioned, while American companies were banned from directly buying shares in Russia's national debt.

Moscow delivered a tit-for-tat response on Friday, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating that 10 American diplomats would be expelled from Russia, and promising measures that would bar US funds and NGOs from interfering in its internal affairs.

Comment: See also:

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