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A guide to making sense of foreign protests, conflicts and uprisings

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:49 UTC
Hong Kong protests 2019
© Reuters
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, our government-funded media outlet, has published an article titled "Australian expat living in Hong Kong throws off business suit to join protest movement". The entire story is in the headline: some random guy, who ABC keeps anonymous but for the name "Daniel", has joined the protests in Hong Kong. That's it. That's the whole entire bombshell newsworthy news story.

"In Australia we have proper democracy but in Hong Kong, democracy is being slowly eroded away and I'll try to do whatever I can to try and help the cause," the anonymous guy told ABC.

This sort of enthusiastic empty non-story cheerleading is typical for western media coverage of the Hong Kong protests so far, while these same media outlets consistently ignore or downplay protests against the government of France, Israel, Honduras, India, Indonesia and any other region that happens to fall within the US-centralized power alliance. It's an amazingly reliable pattern: the entire western political/media class finds protests and uprisings endlessly fascinating when they are in opposition to governments which haven't yet been absorbed into the imperial blob like China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, pre-collapse Libya, or then-Moscow-aligned Ukraine, but any protests or uprisings within that empire are ignored at best or demonized at worst.
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Fish

Russia releases killer whales from captivity


Digital Journal
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:15 UTC
Releasing Killer Whale
© STR, AFP/File
The All-Russian Fisheries and Oceanography Institute has released 10 killer whales since June.
Russian environmentalists celebrated a "huge victory" on Tuesday after the last of a group of killer whales kept in a notorious facility were released into the sea following year-long captivity.

But 75 beluga whales still languished in pens in the so-called "whale jail" in the Russian Far East, and the question remains whether Russia's controversial practise of catching wild marine mammals for the aquarium industry will be banned.

The All-Russian Fisheries and Oceanography Institute, or VNIRO, has released a total of 10 killer whales, or orcas, and 12 of 87 beluga whales since June, sending them on an arduous 1,800-kilometre (1,120 mile) route by truck and boat.

On Tuesday, VNIRO said in a statement that the last two killer whales and six of the belugas had been released into the wild.

"All 10 orcas from the Srednyaya Bay (facility) have been set free," it said.

The fisheries institute earlier said it has prioritised releasing the killer whales over the summer, as belugas are a more resilient Arctic species that can be taken to the ocean in the colder months.

Environmentalists and marine mammal researchers had criticised the way the initial releases were handled.

Greenpeace said the fourth release on Tuesday was more transparent to the public, while demanding that Russia "publish plans for the release of the remaining belugas".
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Pills

Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay up in historic trial

Kinsey Grant
Morning Brew
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 17:20 UTC
gavel, pharmaceuticals, pills
© Francis Scialabba
Yesterday, an Oklahoma judge ruled that drugmaker Johnson & Johnson must pay $572 million to the state for its role in the opioid crisis that killed more than 47,000 Americans in 2017 alone.

The details
  • What Oklahoma said: State Attorney General Mike Hunter argued that Janssen, J&J's pharmaceutical subsidiary, created a "public nuisance" by misinforming both doctors and the public about the addictive risks of painkillers as early as the 1990s. The state called J&J the "kingpin" of the crisis.
  • What J&J said: It lawfully marketed and sold prescription opioid painkillers, and its products account for under 1% of the Oklahoma opioid market (a stat the state disputed). It's appealing the decision.
J&J could have made out much worse. Oklahoma was seeking over $17 billion, while investors penciled in a fine of up to $5 billion, per Evercore. J&J shares rose after hours given the lighter-than-expected fine. But still...

Comment: See also: Oklahoma judge set to reach decision in latest major opioid lawsuit - UPDATES

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Camcorder

How predictable: Only camera footage from outside Epstein's cell deemed 'unusable'

Ellen Killoran
CrimeOnline
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:19 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein
© Brigitte Stelzer
Footage from a camera aimed at the area outside Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell at a the Manhattan Correctional Center is unusable, sources told the Washington Post.

According to the report, the sources said that footage from one of the cameras outside of the cell where Epstein reportedly took his own life on August 10 was in too poor condition to be useful to investigators probing the circumstances of Epstein's death. It is unclear exactly why the footage is not usable, or if the problem with the camera was isolated to the day that Epstein died.

Footage from nearby cameras did provide clearer footage. As CrimeOnline previously reported, there were no cameras trained directly on Epstein's cell at the time of his death.

Epstein's legal team has questioned the New York City medical examiner's ruling that Epstein died of suicide by hanging, and had previously said they would be seeking video footage of the area around Epstein's cell.

"The defense team fully intends to conduct its own independent and complete investigation into the circumstances and cause of Mr. Epstein's death including if necessary legal action to view the pivotal videos — if they exist as they should — of the area proximate to Mr. Epstein's cell during the time period leading to his death," the lawyers said in a statement earlier this month.

"We are not satisfied with the conclusions of the medical examiner."

Comment: Assuming Epstein's 'suicide' was encouraged or 'assisted', it would have been done in such a way as to leave little to no evidence behind that would prove that to be the case. All the available evidence will point to incompetence and unfortunate coincidence. And that will have been the intention. Guards? No one saw anything - staff shortages. Cameras? Technical malfunction. Broken neck bones? That can happen to older individuals - in other words, the evidence isn't decisive. Fortunately, few are buying it. Unfortunately, that might not be enough to get to the truth.

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Hardhat

Syrians already rebuilding Khan Sheikhoun just days after liberation from al-Qaeda


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:33 UTC
khan sheikhoun
© Sputnik
On Friday, the Syrian military announced that they had regained control over Khan Sheikhoun. Controlled by militants since 2014, the town has been practically destroyed.

Syrian authorities have started rebuilding infrastructure in the recently liberated town of Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib Province, with a group of foreign journalists having come to look at what had been a strategic stronghold of terrorists since 2014.

Foreign journalists, including those from Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Russia, had the opportunity to look at how life is going in the liberated town. Italian correspondent Gian Michalisin noted that it was a strategically important task to clear Khan Sheikhoun of terrorists, recalling that 2,500 foreign militants had been operating here.

On Monday, the Russian military delivered humanitarian aid to the town.

"You can see the mosque that was the first to be put in order. Civilians have returned to neighbouring houses. Electrification is already underway, and this work has been going on for three days, since the city was liberated from militants", Maj. Gen. Ravil Muginov of the Russian Centre for Syrian Reconciliation said.

According to Muginov, the local administration is doing its best to return a sense of nomalcy to the town.

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Airplane

Russian company taking Boeing to court in first lawsuit over 737 MAX planes


RT
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:11 UTC
Boeing 737 MAX
© Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
Dozens of grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, US. File photo.
A Russian aircraft leasing company has filed a lawsuit in Chicago against Boeing to cancel its purchase of the grounded 737 MAX planes in the first court case of its kind after two deadly air crashes involving the planes.

Avia Capital Services is seeking to terminate a contract for the purchase of 35 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over safety concerns, according to a report by Financial Times. The company, a subsidiary of Russian state conglomerate Rostec, claims the two deadly crashes of 737 MAX that resulted in the deaths of 346 people earlier this year were the result of "negligent actions and decisions of Boeing" in both designing a plane that was "defective" and "withholding critical information" from the US aviation safety regulator during certification.
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Attention

Hong Kong police attacked by club-wielding mob as protests turn violent


RT
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 11:58 UTC
HONG KONG PROTEST
© Reuters/Thomas Peter
Anti-extradition bill protesters face police and clash in Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong
Protesters used clubs and projectiles to attack police on the streets of Hong Kong, a newly posted video shows, contradicting the western narrative which had painted the anti-China demonstrators as noble victims.

Footage shows a group of armed protesters -many equipped with helmets and gas masks- rushing at riot police with baseball bats, sticks, rocks, metal rods and other crude weapons.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

Russia to build €2bn bridge as part of route linking Europe & Western China


RT
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:30 UTC
bridge
Authorities in Russia's Samara Region are ready to begin construction of a 4km-long (2.5 miles) bridge across the Volga; it is the first part of an ambitious international traffic corridor linking Europe with Western China.

The bridge will cost 120.8 billion rubles (€1.6 billion or $1.8 billion), according to the latest version of the construction agreement.

Half of that sum will be allocated as a capital grant from the regional budget, the rest of the financing will be raised by the investor, Obkhod Togliatti (Togliatti bypass). The bridge will be part of the new highway linking Moscow and Kazan, the capital of Russia's Tatarstan republic.

The new road will greatly reduce travel time from Moscow to Kazan, as well as to another large city in Central Russia - Samara - from the current 16 to 8 hours, project papers state.
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Eye 1

FATCA: IRS using UK banks to hound non-residents for revenue, threaten to freeze accounts

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 16:29 UTC
IRS US
© AP Photo/ J. David Ake
With the exception of Eritrea, the US is the only country in the world that taxes non-resident citizens on their global income, as foreign financial firms with US operations are all obligated to report information pertaining to US taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service.

Tens of thousands of British citizens born in the US who left when only a few months or years old are facing the risk of their bank accounts in the United Kingdom being frozen over pressure by American tax authorities on the country's banks, writes The Guardian.

An increasing number of British citizens who never worked in the US are being chased down by banks that seek to obtain their American tax identification numbers under threat of having their assets frozen.

Comment: As with all tax rules, it's the general public, who don't have the resources to tackle the unjust laws and its enforcers, who lose out. Further, if the British government really worked for its citizens it would not have signed up to FATCA nor would it comply:

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Attention

LAPD officer kills mentally ill man and shoots his parents inside a local Costco

Julia Jacobo
ABC News
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 11:59 UTC
Paola French
© KABC
Paola French describes the June 14, 2019, shooting at a Costco in Corona, California, that killed her son, 32-year-old Kenneth French.
The parents of a mentally ill man who was killed by an off-duty LAPD officer inside a Southern California Costco described the sequence of events that led to all three of them being shot.

On June 14, Paola and Russell French were making a routine shopping trip at the Costco in Corona, California, with their son, 32-year-old Kenneth French, to prepare for Father's Day, their attorney, Dale Galipo, told reporters at a news conference Monday.

The family had been inside the store for 30 to 40 minutes when they stopped at a stand where a Costco employee was handing out samples of sausages, Galipo said.

Salvador Sanchez of the LAPD's Southwest Division was also at the stand holding his young son, Galipo said, adding that what sparked the ensuing altercation is unclear.

Paola French described what happened next as her son pushing or shoving the officer, while other witnesses described it as a punch or a strike, Galipo said.
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