Puppet Masters

Trump: US is withdrawing from UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 16:51 UTC

US President Donald Trump has announced his administration will stop ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and withdraw from it, calling it "badly misguided" and a threat to American freedoms.

The UN will soon receive "formal notice that America is rejecting this treaty," Trump said on Friday, speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"I will sign right now, in front of a lot of witnesses, a message asking the Senate to discontinue the treaty ratification process, and to return the now-rejected treaty to me, to the Oval Office, where I will dispose of it."

The ATT is a multilateral arms control agreement that regulates the international weapons trade. It was signed by US President Barack Obama in 2013, but never ratified by the Senate to become US law.

Conservative groups such as the NRA have voiced opposition to the treaty for years, arguing that its regulations seek to bypass the Second Amendment to the Constitution and impose domestic gun bans in the US.

Comment: See also:
Trump's withdrawal from arms treaty doesn't change anything, just divides US pundits

US, Russia, China agree on withdrawal of forces, 'inclusive Afghan-led' peace process

RFE/RL
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 22:15 UTC

The United States, Russia, and China have agreed on the goal of withdrawing foreign forces from Afghanistan and to seek an "inclusive Afghan-led" peace process, the three countries declared in a joint statement.

"The three sides call for an orderly and responsible withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan as part of the overall peace process," the joint statement, issued on the website of the U.S. State Department, said on April 26. "The three sides support an inclusive Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process and are ready to provide necessary assistance," it added.

The statement also said that it takes note of the Taliban's "commitment" to fight the Islamic State (IS) extremist group and to break ties to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. It said the Taliban promised to "ensure the areas they control will not be used to threaten any other country."

Taliban negotiators have so far refused to negotiate with the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, calling it a puppet of the West, and have insisted on the withdrawal of foreign forces before talks with Kabul can begin. However, the United States, Russia, and China said they "encourage" the Taliban to speak "as soon as possible" with a "broad, representative Afghan delegation that includes the government."

Trump's withdrawal from arms treaty doesn't change anything, just divides US pundits

RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 16:02 UTC

Continuing his tradition of shredding treaties and agreements signed by the Obama administration, President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the UN Arms Trade Treaty. His supporters and opponents immediately weighed in.

Democrats savaged Trump for pandering to the gun lobby and making "a more dangerous world," in the words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

As the treaty sought to regulate international transfers of arms from tanks and warships to rifles and rockets, Democrats painted Trump's withdrawal as a move that would make it easier for "human rights abusers and terrorists" to acquire weapons.

Comment: See also: Trump: US is withdrawing from UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

Nix retirement, Biden announces 2nd term in office before winning 1st one

RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:52 UTC

Joe Biden is so confident he's going to beat 20 other Democrats in the race to wrest the presidency from Donald Trump in 2020 that he reassured voters he wouldn't retire after just one term because of his age.

Asked whether his age would prompt him to serve only one term, Biden exclaimed "No!" apparently taken aback at the suggestion from The View host Joy Behar.

"The idea of committing to only do one term... it's a legitimate question to ask about my age," Biden admitted, but "hopefully, I can demonstrate, not only with age has come wisdom, and experience that can make things a lot better."

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Ex-consul debunks MSM claims Assange at odds with embassy staff: 'He respected us'

RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:59 UTC

Claims that Ecuadorian embassy staff had trouble living side-by-side with Julian Assange were a mere "smear campaign," the country's former consul told RT. Both the hosts and the guest showed true respect to each other, he said.

In comments to RT, Fidel Narvaez spoke out against media coverage of Julian Assange who remains in custody after his arrest in London.

"I was very disappointed that the fundamental thing - which is the persecution of a journalist for ... the crime of publishing truthful information about war crimes, corruption, mass surveillance - is not in the focus of international [media coverage]."

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Trump's call to dump nukes deflects from arms control deals he exits

RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 16:32 UTC

Trump's suggestion that the world powers "have to get rid" of nuclear weapons can't be taken seriously as this is a mere distraction from crucial arms control accords the US is keen to dismantle, analysts told RT.

The US President said that not only "we want to get rid of the nuclear weapons," but "we have to,"citing Russia and China among the states which should ditch their respective arsenals. It comes on the heels of reports that White House officials are allegedly preparing options for a grand nuclear deal between Washington, Moscow and Beijing. But one should not set high hopes for the proposal.

"It is a political declaration, which, I think, has not much in common with reality," commented Vasily Kashin, a senior research fellow at Russia's Higher School of Economics. All in all, "everyone understands there will be no steps in this direction" and there's "quite a distrust" between Washington and Beijing, let alone Washington and Moscow.

Former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT:

"The US is not agreement capable. Any agreement we make is simply not going to be honored by the US side. I don't see how anybody in Moscow or Beijing would listen to this and say 'oh sure, look at what happened with the nuclear agreement. Look what happened with INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty). Let's go and sign this new agreement I'm sure the Americans will be very sincere about it.'"

Comment: See also:

Biden, Trump clash: Charlottesville 'fine people' comments and age jabs

RT
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 19:32 UTC

Just a day after Joe Biden entered the 2020 election race, the former vice president and President Donald Trump have already locked horns on Trump's Charlottesville protest remarks that enraged Democrats two years ago. Game on.

Biden angered the right and dragged Trump into a two-year-old battle when he hammered the president's response to a white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, in a campaign video released on Thursday.

Specifically, Biden trashed Trump for stating that there "were very fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville. By his comments, the former vice president accused Trump of tarnishing "the core values of this nation."

Comment: See also:

Putin responds to Kiev's outrage by offering fast-track citizenship to ALL Ukrainians

RT
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 08:42 UTC

Moscow may soon extend its fast-track naturalization procedure to all citizens of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin announced days after residents of the country's east were allowed to get Russian passports within three months.

"We're thinking on granting Russian citizenship to Ukrainians under a simplified procedure," Vladimir Putin told reporters on the sidelines of the Belt and Road summit in Beijing.

Russia has recently made it easier for residents of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine to become Russian citizens. Expanding on that, Putin said the decision "wasn't spontaneous."

The government has calculated everything, including the number of potential applicants, the number of future retirees and, most importantly, the funding needed to implement the measure. Putin said the offer of passports would cost an estimated $1.5bn, but it will not affect benefits or other social responsibilities.

Comment: You made this bed, Ukraine. So now you sleep in it.

Blackwater founder Erik Prince registers new company in Basra, Iraq

Sputnik
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 02:11 UTC

Blackwater founder Erik Prince has registered a subsidiary of his Hong-Kong based company in Iraq's city of Basra, media reported.

Frontier Logistics Consultancy DMCC, which is a subsidiary of Prince's new company Frontier Services Group (FSG), has been registered as a foreign company with Iraq's Ministry of Trade, Buzzfeed reported on Friday citing documents it had obtained.

The report said the subsidiary's office is based in Basra, located in Iraq's oil-rich southern region, close to the border with Iran and Kuwait.

FSG did not respond to requests for comment about the activity of its business in Iraq, according to the report. However, Prince said in an interview with Al Jazeera in March that FSG could be providing support for oil operations in Iraq or Pakistan.

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Ex-president Lula, in first interview since being thrown in prison: 'Brazil governed by lunatics and US lackeys'

Anna Jean Kaiser and Tom Phillips
The Guardian
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 18:08 UTC

© Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse/Getty
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says his country needs to undergo period of ‘self-reflection’ after what he described as the hate-filled election of far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president from 2003 and 2011, is in jail over corruption charges that he disputes

Brazil is being governed by "a bunch of lunatics" and United States "lackeys" who have shattered its international reputation, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has claimed in his first interview since being jailed one year ago.

Lula, Brazil's president from 2003 and 2011, surrendered himself to police last April after being convicted on corruption charges he disputes.

The 73-year-old leftist had been forbidden from giving face-to-face interviews until Friday, when two Brazilian journalists were allowed to visit him at his prison in southern Brazil following a lengthy legal battle.

Comment: Political forces may have managed to imprison Lula on trumped-up charges, but he still holds the heart of the people. He is, without doubt, the most high-profile political prisoner anywhere. That he would undoubtedly have won last year's election in Brazil had he not been abducted and thrown into prison, is a shocking abuse of the rule of law and a return to that country's pre-democracy days of dictatorship-by-fiat.

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

This ain't no fucking real emergency. It is an effing emergency in the mind of a few....who thought they were gonna put the rest of us into...

Buffalo_Ken

The administration defended OSHA's legal right to issue these requirements, saying that the Occupational Safety and Health Act "gives OSHA the...

HashAttack2

Thanks, SOTT. Good read.

ReRan

They can stuck their new world order up their ass! [Link] And here’s Greta’s version, believe in or not LOL [Link]

LadyRad

Puppet Masters

Trump: US is withdrawing from UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

US, Russia, China agree on withdrawal of forces, 'inclusive Afghan-led' peace process

Trump's withdrawal from arms treaty doesn't change anything, just divides US pundits

Nix retirement, Biden announces 2nd term in office before winning 1st one

Ex-consul debunks MSM claims Assange at odds with embassy staff: 'He respected us'

Trump's call to dump nukes deflects from arms control deals he exits

Biden, Trump clash: Charlottesville 'fine people' comments and age jabs

Putin responds to Kiev's outrage by offering fast-track citizenship to ALL Ukrainians

Blackwater founder Erik Prince registers new company in Basra, Iraq

Ex-president Lula, in first interview since being thrown in prison: 'Brazil governed by lunatics and US lackeys'

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