Society's Child

Japan planning retaliatory action against Trump's import Tariffs

PressTV
Thu, 17 May 2018 05:16 UTC

© AFP
Containers sit piled on the docks as a ship is docked at the international cargo terminal at the port in Tokyo, Japan, on February 19, 2018.

The Japanese government is reportedly planning to take retaliatory steps against the United States as Washington has declined to exempt Tokyo from heavy duties on steel and aluminum imports.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday that the country was considering slapping tariffs on US exports worth 409 million dollars in retaliation for steel and aluminum import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in March allegedly on national security grounds.

Based on international trade rules, the government will notify the World Trade Organization (WTO) of the plan before the end of this week, according to the NHK.

Comment: While Trump may be attempting to do what's best for the US, it no longer holds the influence on global trade that it once did and many countries are pushing back:

Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: The Art of The Iran no-Deal: Trump, Israel, And The End of The Atlantic Alliance

Israel's justification for starting the Six-Day War would give Gazans the right to invade them in turn

Jon Schwarz
The Intercept
Wed, 16 May 2018 18:53 UTC

One of the key targets of the "Great March of Return" protests in Gaza, which began six weeks ago and culminated Tuesday, is Israel's brutal, decade-long blockade of the small territory, which is about the size of Detroit. The siege has caused Gaza's economy to shrink by one-half, and the United Nations has warned that it will soon render Gaza literally "uninhabitable."

For its part, Israel knows who's to blame for the 100-plus Palestinians dead and the thousands wounded during the demonstrations: Hamas. "They're pushing civilians - women, children - into the line of fire," Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu claimed this week, with no evidence whatsoever. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, tweeted that Hamas's "tools for infiltrating Israel" include "children," "disabled civilians," and, most terrifyingly, "rope tied to fence."

But there's a stupendous historical irony to Israel's manufactured outrage: Israel itself claimed that a far less stringent embargo by Egypt in 1967 was a legitimate casus belli for Israel to attack Egypt (which led to Israel seizing control of Gaza and eventually imposing the embargo on it).

Debunked: Four years old video of 'fake dead Palestinians' exposes pro-Israel propaganda

RT
Thu, 17 May 2018 20:23 UTC

A video circulating on social media claiming to be evidence that Hamas is faking deaths in Gaza does not actually portray what has been claimed. And not only that - the footage is more than four years old.

The video was shared among pro-Israel social media users in the wake of Monday's Great Return March protests in Gaza, in which Israeli fire killed at least 60. People shared it as 'proof' that Hamas is either faking the number of deaths reported after Monday's unrest or is manipulating people into feeling sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

However, the video actually dates back to 2013 and has been used as anti-Palestinian propaganda since at least 2014, when Israel's Operation Protective Edge war on Gaza saw more than 2,200 Palestinians killed, more than 1,462 of whom were civilians, according to the UN.

Mali: Albino child kidnapped and beheaded in 'ritual' murder, public outcry follows

Yahoo News
Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00 UTC

© AFP Photo/HABIB KOUYATE
One of Mali's leading musicians, Salif Keita, seen here with his daugher Nanty, is a campaigner against anti-albino prejudice and crime

Armed men abducted and beheaded a five-year-old albino girl in Mali at the weekend, police said, in what was feared to be a ritual murder for supposedly magic body parts.

Djeneba Diarra, whose family lives in Fana village 125 kilometres (78 miles) north of Bamako, "was sleeping in the courtyard with her mother and her sister" when the men snatched her at around 2:00 am on Sunday, police told AFP on Monday.

The girl's mother at first tried to pursue the kidnappers, who scaled a wall with her child, but then turned back to protect her second daughter, also an albino.

"We searched for the little girl everywhere. We found her body beside a mosque, but she had no head," said a village teacher, Oumar Diakite.

Blaming a lack of security for the killing, angry local residents on Sunday partially burned down the paramilitary police headquarters in Fana, according to several witnesses.

Comment: These heinous crimes have been on-going for years now:

And the grotesque ritual abuse and murder of innocents continues around the world...

Zuckerberg again ducks UK parliament's direct call to testify

Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch
Tue, 15 May 2018 17:18 UTC

Facebook has once again eschewed a direct request from the UK parliament for its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to testify to a committee investigating online disinformation - without rustling up so much as a fig-leaf-sized excuse to explain why the founder of one of the world's most used technology platforms can't squeeze a video call into his busy schedule and spare UK politicians' blushes.

Which tells you pretty much all you need to know about where the balance of power lies in the global game of (essentially unregulated) U.S. tech platforms giants vs (essentially powerless) foreign political jurisdictions.

At the end of an 18-page letter sent to the DCMS committee yesterday - in which Facebook's UK head of public policy, Rebecca Stimson, provides a point-by-point response to the almost 40 questions the committee said had not been adequately addressed by CTO Mike Schroepfer in a prior hearing last month - Facebook professes itself disappointed that the CTO's grilling was not deemed sufficient by the committee.

Comment:

Maj. Anas Ibrahim Obaid: 'I gave the US trucks and ammunition to Al Qaeda'

Hollie McKay
Fox News
Thu, 17 May 2018 18:57 UTC

Maj. Anas Ibrahim Obaid, better known on the battlefield as Commander Abu Zayd, admitted to Fox News that he gave US-issued trucks and ammunition to Al Qaeda in Syria

U.S. military equipment and ammunition, sent to Syria as part of a failed Obama administration plan to find and arm moderate forces to defeat ISIS, were instead simply handed over to an Al Qaeda group, according to the man who said he himself brokered the deal.

"I communicated with Al Qaeda's branch, Al Nusra, to protect and safely escort me and my soldiers for two hours from North Aleppo to West Aleppo," Maj. Anas Ibrahim Obaid, better known on the battlefield as Abu Zayd, told Fox News from his home in the western Aleppo area. "In exchange, I gave them five pickup trucks and ammunition."

Those trucks and ammo were issued to him by the United States in 2015, part of a $500 million Department of Defense effort to "train and equip" a new "ideologically moderate" force to battle ISIS. The program, one of at least two designed to funnel arms to so-called moderate Syrian rebels, proved to be a spectacular failure for the Obama administration.

Zayd, who said he defected from the Syrian Army to the opposition in 2012, described a program that was rife with inconsistencies and incompetencies.

Homelessness on the West Coast has reached a fever pitch - and the solutions are not apparent

Bob Shanahan
Investment Watch Blog
Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00 UTC

Homelessness in America is out of control, especially on the West Coast. The total homeless population in the U.S. rose this past year for the first time since 2010, driven primarily by a steep increase in people living on the streets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. City streets are becoming disgusting and dangerous. Residents are worried and regularly don't feel safe. Something has to be done, but what can actually be accomplished?

There is urine and fecal matter on the streets of San Francisco and used needles all around as drug addicts shoot up wherever they please. Tent cities sprout up weekly along freeways and seedy areas of Seattle, which has recently passed an employee tax on Amazon, Starbucks, and other large employers to fund a program to combat homelessness. Homeless people sleep in front of high end retail shops in nice parts of LA and San Francisco. And scores of unwashed people in Sacramento berate residents for spare change and make many citizens feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods.

EU willing to buy more gas from US if Trump scraps metal tariffs

RT
Thu, 17 May 2018 17:05 UTC

Europe will buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US if President Donald Trump agrees to cancel the heavy tariffs on steel and aluminum producers, RIA Novosti reports quoting its source in the EU.

In late March, the US imposed duties on imports of steel and aluminum at rates of 25 and 10 percent respectively. For a number of countries, as well as for the EU, these duties were suspended until June.

According to RIA Novosti, the leaders of 28 EU countries discussed a deal, that would increase the share of American LNG in Europe in an exchange for tariffs relief, on Wednesday during an informal dinner in Sofia, Bulgaria.

EAEU and Iran sign agreement to establish free-trade zone

Sputnik
Thu, 17 May 2018 16:18 UTC

The EAEU and Iran have signed a temporary agreement to establish a free trade zone during an economic forum in Astana.

Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed a provisional pact on Thursday to create a free trade zone, the chair of the board of the EAEU's economic commission, said.

"The temporary agreement stipulates an effective dispute settlement mechanism, including arbitration ... It also creates a joint committee of high-ranking officials and establishes a business dialogue," Tigran Sargsyan said at a ceremony in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The newly-signed provisional agreement on a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran will provide new opportunities for Armenia to step up trade with the neighboring country and develop new production capacities, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said Thursday.

#HaveDied: Independent journalists Twitter-shame mainstream media's reporting of Israel's massacre in Gaza

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
Wed, 16 May 2018 16:33 UTC

As Israel slaughtered dozens of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza this week, prominent media outlets employed innocuous headlines to obscure the horrific reality.

In the video below, RT correspondent Anya Parampil points to some examples of what she calls "an almost across the board obfuscation of Israel's responsibility for the violence."

A BBC headline read for instance, "Gaza's deadliest day of violence in years," while The Guardian ran with "Fatal clashes in Gaza after opening of US embassy."

The word "clashes," Parampil observes, "would lead you to believe there are casualties or injuries on the Israeli side."

Speak loudly and carry a big sick.

Robotech

The ship's going down; all resistance is 'fewtile'. They sold the fairytale 911 story....still do....(that had holes big enough to drive a 737...

Fewtile

Dr. RC says no one's talking much about a vaccine caused MCI (myocardial infarction) or stroke etc. Remember the pilots dying? The concern was and...

Rowan Cocoan

Their HELL bent in injecting this SHIT in to everyone and will stop at nothing until their demented goal is achieved. If you lose your job for not...

Winternights3

Someone deport this monstrous POS back to hell, or wherever. Anywhere with a good stockade 😤and his kids too

slbeaudry

Society's Child

Japan planning retaliatory action against Trump's import Tariffs

Israel's justification for starting the Six-Day War would give Gazans the right to invade them in turn

Debunked: Four years old video of 'fake dead Palestinians' exposes pro-Israel propaganda

Mali: Albino child kidnapped and beheaded in 'ritual' murder, public outcry follows

Zuckerberg again ducks UK parliament's direct call to testify

Maj. Anas Ibrahim Obaid: 'I gave the US trucks and ammunition to Al Qaeda'

Homelessness on the West Coast has reached a fever pitch - and the solutions are not apparent

EU willing to buy more gas from US if Trump scraps metal tariffs

EAEU and Iran sign agreement to establish free-trade zone

#HaveDied: Independent journalists Twitter-shame mainstream media's reporting of Israel's massacre in Gaza

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