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'Hostile news policy': US-funded Arabic channel exposé unites Iraqi Sunni & Shia over foreign meddling


RT
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 13:01 UTC
powel iraq
© Reuters / Ray StubblebineFILE PHOTO
Iraq's sectarian political scene is having a rare moment of unity, driven by an unlikely culprit. Recent reporting by a US-funded Middle Eastern news outlet has piqued claims of American meddling in Iraq's internal affairs.

Alhurra, a US-based and -funded television channel that broadcasts to the Arab world, has landed in hot water with Iraq's official media watchdog, as well as religious and political leaders, over a report alleging misuse of government funds among Sunni and Shia officials.

Rivals united in outrage

In a 12-minute documentary broadcast this weekend - titled "The Holy Persons of Sacred Corruption in Iraq" - Alhurra reported that Iraqi political figures were personally benefiting from the administration of religious sites and real estate deals involving state funds. The report also posited that Iraq's highest religious authorities were involved in the corruption, including the Sunni Grand Mufti, Sheikh Mahdi al-Sumaidaie, as well as Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Comment: It looks like US attempts at divide and conquer backfired:

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Fire

Massive blaze breaks out at oil refinery outside Mumbai, India

Promit Mukherjee
Reuters
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 08:58 UTC
India fire oil
© Twitter / SANDEEPDALVI84
Four people have been killed and three seriously injured in a fire at an oil and gas processing plant on the outskirts of Mumbai run by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, a local police official and a company source said on Tuesday.

"We're checking with the local hospital for further updates, but so far we have four confirmed dead," said a company source, who asked not to be named as ONGC have not issued any official statement on casualties.

The company declined to comment, but said in a tweet that a fire broke out early Tuesday morning at the Uran plant site in western Maharashtra state and was put out within two hours.

"No impact on oil processing. Gas diverted to Hazira Plant. Situation is being assessed," the company said in the tweet.

Comment: RT reports:
The fire broke out in a storm water drainage system around 7am local time on Tuesday morning at the facility. Fire and emergency management services are on the scene and have contained the fire, though local residents have been evacuated and the area cordoned off by police, according to local media.





At least eight workers at the plant have been hospitalized with burn injuries, and up to five deaths have been reported so far. Oil processing at the plant has not been affected, though gas has been diverted to another plant at Hazira in Gujarat, 330km away. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
This comes a few days after another explosion at a chemical factory, also in India: 13 dead, 72 injured in gas explosion at chemical factory, India

See also:

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Info

Canadian Nationalist Party granted eligibility to become a registered party in the upcoming federal election

Rachel Browne
Global News
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 14:59 UTC
canadian nationalist party
© Canadian Nationalist Party / Facebook
A prominent Canadian anti-hate organization is outraged over news that a far-right group accused of advocating white nationalism has become eligible to register as an official political party in the upcoming federal election.

Elections Canada informed the Canadian Nationalist Party on Thursday that it had met the requirements under the Canada Elections Act to qualify as a registered party during the October election. The requirements include garnering a minimum of 250 eligible voters to support the application.

The party, founded in 2017 by 28-year-old Travis Patron, espouses anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ2 views. The party's policies on its website include deporting "illegal migrants," prohibiting public officials from holding dual citizenship and removing "homosexuality/transgenderism from the academic curriculum entirely."

Comment: It's hard to say for sure that the Canadian Nationalist Party is anything like the racist homophobes they're being portrayed as. Regardless, if the party is really the cesspool of hatred they're accused of being, they simply won't get any votes. By drawing so much attention to them, this anti-hate group is only bolstering their popularity. And every Canadian should be deeply concerned about the Canadian Anti-Hate Network's stated mission of changing the Canadian Elections Act, whether or not you agree with the Canadian Nationalist Party's stance. Eroding freedoms based on some people doing something you disagree with is an invitation to tyranny. Then again, perhaps that's party's entire raison d'être.

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Light Sabers

US unleashes military to fight fake news and disinformation

Pete Norman
Bloomberg
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 13:43 UTC
Mark Zuckerberg Senate
© Andrew Harrer/BloombergFacebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg sits at the witness table after a break during a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018.
Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel "large-scale, automated disinformation attacks," as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants custom software that can unearth fakes hidden among more than 500,000 stories, photos, video and audio clips. If successful, the system after four years of trials may expand to detect malicious intent and prevent viral fake news from polarizing society.

"A decade ago, today's state-of-the-art would have registered as sci-fi — that's how fast the improvements have come," said Andrew Grotto at the Center for International Security at Stanford University. "There is no reason to think the pace of innovation will slow any time soon."

U.S. officials have been working on plans to prevent outside hackers from flooding social channels with false information ahead of the 2020 election. The drive has been hindered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to consider election-security legislation. Critics have labeled him #MoscowMitch, saying he left the U.S. vulnerable to meddling by Russia, prompting his retort of "modern-day McCarthyism."

Comment: With a four-year timeline, 'deepfakes' technology will probably have advanced to the point where automated detection systems will have trouble determining what is real or fake. In the meantime, they will use it to denounce legit media as 'fake' and further push the PTB's fake narratives. See also:

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Russian Flag

Next-gen airliners, retro planes & fighter jets: Highlights from Russia's MAKS-2019 airshow


RT
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 08:48 UTC
Su-30SM MAKS-2019 Russian jet
© Sputnik / Ilya PitalevAn Su-30SM makes flypast at MAKS-2019
An array of existing and future jets made their debut at this year's edition of Russia's MAKS airshow, amazing visitors and impressing prospective buyers. Here are the best takeaways from the event - in case you missed it.

The 2019 event kicked off at Zhukovsky airfield near Moscow last Tuesday, with as many as 600,000 people attending the exhibition. On Friday, MAKS finally opened its doors to the public, much to the delight of aviation geeks, plane spotters, and airshow lovers. Countless fighter jets, civilian airliners, helicopters, drones and airspace equipment was put on display on the airfield and in several hangars.

As in previous years, a number of aircraft made spectacular debuts and stole the limelight at MAKS.
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Bug

My night with Epstein pal Jean-Luc Brunel and his very young and terrified models

Michael Gross
The Daily Beast
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:45 UTC
Jean-Luc Brunel
© Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Handout
I don't remember why I was in the nightclub Les Bains Douches that evening, but what happened there and afterward is a crystal-clear memory.

It was 1993 or 1994 when I first encountered Jean-Luc Brunel, the controversial French modeling agent, at a then-trendy South Beach restaurant called The Strand in Miami. A table near mine, set for six, expanded to seat ten, then shrank for eight, then enlarged to fit a party of twelve, and was finally occupied, as I finished my meal, by a pack of extremely young women, teenagers, really, with the willowy frames and lovely faces of neophyte models, and a smaller number of older men who appeared to be ... well ... smug probably sums it up best.

A quarter century later, I was reminded of that dinner when Brunel suddenly riveted the world's attention in the hours immediately before the suicide of the notorious pervert pederast Jeffrey Epstein, when it was alleged that the Frenchman had provided underage women to the very freaky financier.

Comment: See also: Jeffrey Epstein's 'fixer' Jean-Luc Brunel who ran major modelling agency has vanished 'like a ghost'

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Newspaper

Blaming Bosnia for 'alt-right' and mass shootings is both ignorant and wrong

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 20:25 UTC
Sarajevo
© REUTERS/Dado RuvicSarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina (file photo)
Yet that is precisely what Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept has done in a piece published over the weekend, playing the guilt-by-association game to find a common thread to Anders Breivik's 2011 rampage, the Christchurch mosque shootings in March this year, and even the El Paso mass shooting in Texas last month.

Hussain's argument is that "white nationalists" in the West are inspired by the Bosnian Serbs and their "genocide" of Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-1995 conflict. As proof of this, he points to Breivik's statements, writings on the rifle of the New Zealand mosque shooter, and even the obsession of the El Paso attacker with birth rates.

The rest of the article is a regurgitation of mainstream talking points about Bosnia, recycled endlessly since the 1990s - and applied since to justify intervention and death, from Iraq to Libya. This is perhaps not surprising, since Hussain has written about Bosnia in the same vein last year, and actually lamented the decline of US hegemony the year before, as pointed out by journalist Aaron Mate.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Pistol

57 murders each day: Over 450,000 South Africans endorse death penalty amid widespread violence


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
South Africa murders
Reeva Steenkamp (left) and Uyinene Mrwetyana (right) were inspirations for the petition.
Over 450,000 South Africans have signed a petition calling for the death penalty to be reintroduced, following several high-profile murders and widespread violence.

The campaign was set up after a student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, was raped and murdered at a post office in Cape Town. Its founder cited several other high-profile deaths, including the 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, as the inspiration for the petition.

"We as a movement must find our voice to bring back the death sentence for crimes against women and children in the hope of saving this great country," the petition reads.

The most recent crime statistics reveal that there were 20,336 murders in South Africa between April 2017 and March 2018, a 7 percent increase on the previous year. This puts the country's murder rate at 57 murders each day.

Comment: The unrest is due in part to the escalating tensions between authorities and foreign nationals over efforts to shut down illegally operated businesses, including taxis and commercial trucking. Rioters have been looting shops, creating flaming barricades on roads and are fighting with police. See: South Africa descends into chaos amid widespread riots, looting and violence against foreigners

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No Entry

Palestinian Harvard freshman deported after visa revoked over friends social mediaposts - UPDATE

Shera S. Avi-Yonah and Delano R. Franklin
The Harvard Crimson
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 23:00 UTC
Harvard freshman deported Palestinian
© Amanda S. YuFreshmen will move into their dorms in Harvard Yard on Tuesday while incoming student Ismail B. Ajjawi '23 — a Palestinian resident of Tyre, Lebanon — is still fighting to make it to campus.
While most Harvard freshmen settle into their dorms Tuesday, one new student, Ismail B. Ajjawi '23, faces ongoing negotiations with immigration officers to allow him to enter the United States and study at the College.

U.S. officials deported Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday night shortly after he arrived at Boston Logan International Airport. Before canceling Ajjawi's visa, immigration officers subjected him to hours of questioning — at one point leaving to search his phone and computer — according to a written statement by Ajjawi.

University officials are currently working to resolve the matter before classes begin on Sept. 3, Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain wrote in an email.

"The University is working closely with the student's family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days," he wrote.

Harvard both employs immigration lawyers at the Office of the General Counsel and staffs the Harvard International Office. Both groups work to resolve visa-related problems like Ajjawi's. Ajjawi wrote that he has been in contact with HIO Director of Immigration Services Maureen Martin.

Comment: One has to wonder if the deportation has more to do with the fact that he is Palestinian than any other factor.

UPDATE Sept 3: Democracy Now reports that the student has been allowed to return to the US and will start classes at Harvard:
A 17-year-old Palestinian student who was denied entry into the U.S. last month will start classes with his fellow Harvard freshmen today after he returned to the country over the weekend. Ismail Ajjawi was turned away at Boston's Logan Airport just under two weeks ago after being interrogated by immigration officials about his religion and social media posts by friends that were critical of U.S. policy. He was then forced to return home to Lebanon, but his case provoked outrage on the Harvard campus and among some Palestinian rights and academic freedom groups.

Theodore Kattouf, the president of AMIDEAST, the educational nonprofit that granted a scholarship to Ajjawi, said in a statement, "We are pleased that Ismail's Harvard dream will come true after all. Ismail is a bright young man whose hard work, intelligence and drive enabled him to overcome the challenges that Palestinian refugee youth continue to face in order to earn a scholarship."


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Eye 2

What ceasefire? Ukrainian shells explode just 40 meters from OCSE observers' position

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ News
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:11 UTC
OCSE Ukraine
© Vesti News
OSCE observers came under fire in Donbass yesterday. According to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, it happened in Kominternovo. The observers and the center's representatives arrived there to record the effects of shelling that happened a day prior.

This isn't the first time OSCE came under fire from the Ukrainian Army. It also happened in early July. Ukrainian Army's leadership is well aware of the fact that OSCE reporting independently about the war is not in their interest.

The Western-installed puppets want to portray Russia, or at least Novorossiya as the aggressor, which means they don't really want the truth to come out. Thus far, OSCE's reports have been very different from Ukraine's version of "truth".

Comment:

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