Puppet Masters

France counting up billions in lost revenues after weeks of Yellow Vest protests

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:11 UTC

The Bank of France has lowered the country's economic growth forecast for this and next year from 1.6 percent to 1.5 percent, warning that the longer the unrest lasts the greater the losses will be for the national economy.

Shortly after slashing its assessment of economic growth, in the final quarter, in half, the central bank has cut overall growth on Thursday. Meanwhile, the regulator remains optimistic about unemployment which they expect will continue to fall.

While the new figures show that the economy is expected to slow just 0.1 percent in 2018 and 2019 compared to previous assessment, in real money the sum is quite significant. It may cost the protest-riven EU country up to $28 billion based on the IMF forecast for the country's GDP for 2018 of almost $2.8 trillion.

"Overall the more the movement lasts, the bigger the loss for the French economy," Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy, told French business newspaper Les Echos.

Does Mueller's 'pit bull', lead prosecutor Weissmann have a history of ethics violations?

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Sat, 08 Dec 2018 16:48 UTC

These facts raise serious concerns about Andrew Weissmann's continued service on the special counsel's team and justify delving further into the career of the long-time federal prosecutor.

Houston-based attorney Kevin Fulton, of the Fulton Law Group, filed a motion on my behalf Thursday morning to unseal and unredact court records that may expose past misconduct by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's lead prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann.

Since Weissmann took a leave of absence from his top Department of Justice job to join the special counsel's team, critics have questioned his impartiality. Reports suggest the man branded Mueller's pit bull by the New York Times violated internal protocol when he met with reporters from the Associated Press in April 2017. The following day, the AP published an exposé on Paul Manafort's relationship with Ukraine officials.

Comment:

Decline of the dollar: Russia and Syria to dump dollar in mutual trade, agree on joint energy projects

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:08 UTC

The Moscow-Damascus Intergovernmental panel has reached a series of agreements, including switching to national currencies in mutual settlements and commercial energy exploration in Syria.

"Mutual settlements, transport and logistics - as far as I'm concerned these issues have been settled," Vladimir Padalko, Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry told journalists on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Russian-Syrian commission for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, taking place in Damascus.

The Russian official added that the countries have picked 200 Russian and Syrian companies to take part in joint projects for rebuilding the war-torn country. The parties are set to sign an agreement that includes 10 extensive focus areas for recovering the Syrian post-war economy.

The parties have also clinched a number of commercial agreements on exploration and production of energy commodities in Syria, according to the Russian office. Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade and Syrian Ministry of Industry has reportedly approved and signed a road map for bilateral industry cooperation.

The countries have reached 30 agreements on investment projects. Syria and Russia have come to material consent in the area of transport and higher education, according to the Head of the Syrian Planning and International Cooperation Commission Imad Sabuni.

Israeli bulldozers illegally raze lands in northern Gaza

Ma'an News Agency
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 16:59 UTC

Israeli bulldozers entered dozens of meters into Palestinian lands in Beit Lahiya town, in the northern besieged Gaza Strip, on Thursday.

A Ma'an reporter said that four large Israeli military bulldozers entered dozens of meters into Beit Lahiya and razed lands while drones flew overhead.

No shootings were reported.

US to bill Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates $331M for Yemen refueling

Joe Gould
Defense News
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 23:38 UTC

© Virginia Mayo/AP
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, right, speaks with Saudi Assistant Minister of Defense Mohammed Al-Ayeesh

The Pentagon announced it will bill Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates $331 million after undercharging the two countries for U.S. aerial refueling of their aircraft in the Yemen civil war.

The news came in the wake of reports that the Senate passed a resolution to end U.S. military aid to the Saudi-led coalition and another to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"U.S. Central Command reviewed its records and found errors in accounting where we failed to charge the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates adequately for fuel and refueling services," Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Thursday.

U.S. Central Command, Rebarich said, is "in the process of seeking reimbursement from" the two countries for $36.8 million in fuel and $294.3 million in flight hours. "Our partners have been individually notified about our intent to seek reimbursement, and have been given estimates as to how much they owe," she said.

US Senate rebukes Trump, condemns MBS for Khashoggi murder, passes resolution to end US military support for Saudi war on Yemen

Clare Foran, Ted Barrett and Manu Raju
CNN
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 16:16 UTC

The Senate on Thursday passed a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, ratcheting up pressure on President Donald Trump who has aligned himself with the Saudi kingdom in the aftermath of the brutal killing.

Just prior to passing the resolution by a voice vote, the Senate also overwhelmingly approved a resolution by a 56-41 vote that would require the US to end its military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, a move aimed both at ending that war and expressing anger at the Trump administration's handling of relations with Saudi Arabia.

All told, it amounted to the most significant break within Congress toward Saudi Arabia in decades -- and the firmest response from Capitol Hill since the Khashoggi murder in October. But Republican leaders in the House may put a halt to the push and ultimately side with Trump.

The vote on the Yemen resolution reflected the frustration senators from parties have with the vast human suffering from the war and President Donald Trump's embrace of the crown prince despite widely accepted evidence from US intelligence agencies that he ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

The resolution condemning the crown prince, introduced by Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, serves as an implicit rebuke of the President's own response to the death of Khashoggi and is one of several legislative efforts to target the crown prince and the Trump administration's policy toward Saudi Arabia.

Lavrov: Months of torture-like conditions forced Maria Butina to plead guilty in order to escape

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:50 UTC

Maria Butina

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has explained why he thinks gun activist Maria Butina, jailed in the US, has made a deal with prosecutors: she wants to escape the torture-like conditions she is being kept in.

Speaking to the media in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Lavrov said US prosecutors were deliberately trying to break Butina.

"I can understand that woman, she is being kept in the harshest conditions, for many many months now she has been subjected to a kind of torture: they would make her go for walks at night, forcibly interrupting her sleep, place her in single confinement, and many other things," Lavrov said.

I have reasons to believe the conditions that have been created for her are intended to break her will and make her confess to something she likely didn't do.

Unnecessarily harsh treatment continued as recently as on Thursday, after Butina's plea deal. She was being kept in conditions "normally reserved for dangerous repeat offenders," Lavrov said.

Comment: And many others agree with that assessment:

Tormented into a guilty plea? Experts denounce US "miscarriage of justice" in Butina case

Russian Orthodox Church calls on international leaders to protect its followers in Ukraine from state pressure & persecution

RFE/RL
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 15:48 UTC

Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to world leaders asking them to assist followers of Russian Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

The Russian Orthodox Church has called on international leaders to "protect" its followers in Ukraine in the face of what it called official pressure on Moscow-appointed clerics.

In a statement issued on December 14, the Russian Orthodox Church said Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Thomas Greminger, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect believers and their faith in Ukraine.

"The interference by the leaders of the secular Ukrainian state in church affairs has recently assumed the shape of undue pressure being exerted on the bishops and priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which can be defined as the start of all-out persecution," Patriarch Kirill was quoted as saying in the statement.

The statement was issued a day before a meeting on December 15 of senior figures from Orthodox Christian communities in Ukraine in Kyiv in a bid to form a new, unified, independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and elect a leader, known as a Primate.

Comment: See also:

'Not open for renegotiation': EU stands by Brexit deal, May receives vague assurances on backstop

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 22:58 UTC

British Prime Minister Theresa May has failed to secure any tangible "reassurances" from Brussels that she can take back to her Parliament, with EU leaders refusing to renegotiate the divorce agreement with the UK.

Before Brussels delivered its verdict, May told EU leaders that the Brexit deal is "at risk" if British lawmakers' concerns are not addressed, and urged her European counterparts to "change the perception" of the controversial Irish border backstop clause.

Yet she has received only vague assurances that the backstop, if triggered, would only be a temporary measure - with no particular timeframe - and that the bloc will "work speedily" and do its best to negotiate, in time, a new trade agreement.

The EU has made clear that the backstop was their "insurance policy" to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland and to preserve the "integrity" of the single market. "It is the Union's firm determination to work speedily on a subsequent agreement that establishes by 31 December 2020 alternative arrangements, so that the backstop will not need to be triggered," the final communiqué of Thursday's meeting reads.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

Tormented into a guilty plea? Experts denounce US "miscarriage of justice" in Butina case

RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 03:01 UTC

Maria Butina's only crime is that she is Russian, legal analysts told RT, attacking the US justice system for keeping her in solitary confinement until she admitted guilt to at least one of the many charges brought against her.

"This is an utter and total miscarriage of justice," retired CIA agent and whistleblower John Kiriakou told RT after Butina pleaded guilty to the charge of failing to register with the Justice Department as an agent of the Russian government. "You can see clearly, this is not about justice, this is not about criminal activity. This is about making a political point. This is about identifying Russia and Russians as the enemy of the United States, and punishing them."

"We arrested this young woman because we need dirt on Trump and Russia. And she is Russian, political and pro-Trump," US legal analyst Jennifer Breedon explained. "We are seeing [the Foreign Agents Registration Act - FARA] being used specifically as it relates to undermining the Donald Trump administration or conservatives really with anybody involved in Russia, friends with Russia or contacts."

Comment: In recent weeks the Butina case and the Canadian arrest of a Chinese tech exec reflect just how lame US influence is that it has to resort to such feeble and dirty tactics in its attempts to exert some influence on the international stage:

.. .. Ernesto Guido, you know much that his hidden! [Link]

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Puppet Masters

France counting up billions in lost revenues after weeks of Yellow Vest protests

Does Mueller's 'pit bull', lead prosecutor Weissmann have a history of ethics violations?

Decline of the dollar: Russia and Syria to dump dollar in mutual trade, agree on joint energy projects

Israeli bulldozers illegally raze lands in northern Gaza

US to bill Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates $331M for Yemen refueling

US Senate rebukes Trump, condemns MBS for Khashoggi murder, passes resolution to end US military support for Saudi war on Yemen

Lavrov: Months of torture-like conditions forced Maria Butina to plead guilty in order to escape

Russian Orthodox Church calls on international leaders to protect its followers in Ukraine from state pressure & persecution

'Not open for renegotiation': EU stands by Brexit deal, May receives vague assurances on backstop

Tormented into a guilty plea? Experts denounce US "miscarriage of justice" in Butina case

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