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'Like a debtors' prison': American who fled to China from $30k in student loans


RT
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:51 UTC
student debt
© Reuters / Randall Mikkelsen
Millions of Americans are struggling under the weight of student loans, but the government would rather bomb Iran than fix it, the graduate who packed his bags for China to escape his own crippling college debt tells RT.

Chad Albright completed his degree in public relations at Millersville University, a mid-sized public college in Pennsylvania, at the end of 2007. The timing couldn't have been worse: saddled with $30,000 in student debt, Albright entered the job market just as an unprecedented mortgage crisis sent the American economy spiraling into recession.

With few job prospects, Albright said his options were limited.
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Bomb

Shiite mosque blast kills 10 in eastern Baghdad


Sputnik
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:50 UTC
Iraq street
© AP Photo / Hadi Mizban
No terrorist group has immediately claimed responsibility for the Friday attack on the mosque, according to the Iraqi media.

Ten people died and thirty more sustained injuries as a result of an explosion in Imam Mahdi's mosque in the Baladiyat district of the Iraqi capital, the Baghdad Today media outlet reported citing its security sources.

According to the local media, a terrorist wearing a suicide belt had conducted the attack.

The site where the blast took place has been cordoned off by security services.

There are conflicting reports on the death toll; the local media outlet Baghdad Informer reports that the explosion resulted in the death of seven people.
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Dominoes

Medic says he, not Navy SEAL accused of war crimes, killed injured ISIS teen in stunning turnaround


RT
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:47 UTC
Edward Gallagher
© REUTERS/Mike Blake
U.S. Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher
A high-profile court case against decorated SEAL Eddie Gallagher, accused of killing an ISIS teen fighter and shooting at civilians in Iraq, has taken a sudden twist: the medic witness claimed responsibility for the boy's death.

The testimony of Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, deployed to Mosul, Iraq with the Navy Seal medical team in 2017, has the potential to turn the premeditated murder case against Gallagher upside down.

Taking the stand on Thursday, Scott gave a startling confession: while Chief Gallagher did stab the wounded ISIS prisoner handed over by Iraqi forces to the US at the height of the Mosul battle, the knife blows did not kill him. Scott claimed that it was he who suffocated the prisoner shortly afterwards by blocking his breathing tube with his thumb.
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Whistle

Anarchist university group threatens to dox students who join conservative clubs

Brian Min
The College Fix
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:40 UTC
doxxing
Earlier this month an anarchist group that consists of UT Austin students called the Autonomous Student Network shared a tweet threatening to dox students who considered joining the Young Conservatives of Texas and Turning Point USA during freshman orientation.

"Hey #UT23! Do you wanna be famous? If you join YCT or Turning Point USA, you just might be. Your name and more could end up on an article like one of these," the tweet said, linking to previous doxxing posts of conservative students at the school. "So be sure to make smart choices at #UTOrientation."

Last year the network released extensive personal information of pro-Brett Kavanaugh demonstrators at UT Austin, including their names, photos and contact information. It went so far as to post some of the phone numbers of the employers of students and encouraged its adherents to call them to get them fired.
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Bad Guys

Assange lawyer reveals Pentagon behind pursuit of WikiLeaks publisher


RT
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:34 UTC
assange
© Reuters / Hannah McKay
A lawyer for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has confirmed that the Pentagon - not the White House or any other government agency whose secrets he leaked - was driving the nearly decade-long campaign to destroy the publisher.

After asking officials at the Obama administration if they "really wanted" the publisher for whistleblowers and warning that "there are dangerous precedents here," Assange lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said they responded:
We don't want him, but the Pentagon does, and the Pentagon may eventually get its way.
Robertson's "high connections" got him an audience with Obama administration insiders after he learned of the secret grand jury they had convened against Assange in 2010, he told Phillip Adams on ABC's Radio National on Thursday. When Robertson warned them of the First Amendment implications of charging a publisher under national security laws, however, they already knew what kind of precedent it would set.
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Black Magic

ACLU lawfare allows 'Hail Satan' to open government meeting amidst public walkouts

Shane Trejo
Big League Politics
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:25 UTC
aclu/satanist
The Left is bringing their worship of Satan out into the public.

Because of the subversive work of the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the dark lord is now being honored in the public square.

Satanic Temple member Iris Fontana, thanks to successful lawfare efforts by the ACLU, won the right to say a demonic prayer where she proclaimed 'Hail Satan' to start a government meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough in Alaska.

"That which will not bend, must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared as demise. It is done, hail Satan," Fontana said as apart of an invocation to start the government meeting, according to local radio station KSRM.

A dozen officials and other attendees walked out of the proceedings while Satan was being glorified on the public dime. Around 40 protesters were outside demonstrating against the despicable display. They held signs with messages such as "reject Satan and his works" and "know Jesus and his love."
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Heart - Black

Syrian refugee charged with plotting to bomb Pittsburgh church

Tom Winter
NBC News
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 10:37 UTC
Legacy International Worship Center
© Google Maps
The building at 2131 Wilson Avenue in Pittsburgh that is now the site of Legacy International Worship Center.
A Syrian refugee who came to the United States three years ago has been charged in an ISIS-inspired plot to bomb a Christian church in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, recorded a video of himself pledging an oath of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group and bought bomb-making materials for a FBI undercover employee and a FBI confidential source to use in an attack, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and two counts of distributing information about making bombs in relation to the planned assault.
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Attention

Thousands of anti-Russian Protesters try to storm Georgia parliament in Tbilisi


RT
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 10:37 UTC
Georgia Tbilisi protest
© REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze
Protesters have attempted to storm Georgia's parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi, after thousands swarmed the building during an anti-government rally demanding the resignations of top officials.

Around 5,000 people gathered outside the parliament in Tbilisi to protest the participation of the Russian delegation in a session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy.

Tensions soared during the assembly's session at the parliament building earlier on Thursday. Some opposition MPs were outraged by the presence of Russian delegation member Sergey Gavrilov, who was addressing the gathering from the seat of the house speaker. During a break, they occupied the speaker's podium and prevented the summit from continuing.

Comment: RT reports more on the protests:
Police deployed tear gas at some point of the demonstration and made the protesters retreat, but the crowd returned to the parliament building shortly afterwards. The protesters continued throwing various objects at the officers, with sporadic scuffles breaking out.

"The situation got very heated. There was a respite, and then the crowd geared up for another storm. Stones, sticks and bottles were thrown [at law enforcement] from the side of the crowd. Special forces fired rubber bullets and deployed tear gas," Ruptly producer on the ground described the situation.

He was injured with a rubber bullet while filming and had to go to urgent care.[...]

Kakha Kaladze, mayor of Tbilisi and secretary-general of the Georgian Dream ruling party, urged the demonstrators to refrain from violence instigated by "political provocateurs." He said that onсe the protest spiraled into skirmishes with police, it has become unconstitutional.

Speaking about the incident with Gavrilov that sparked the unrest, Kaladze called it an "outrageous mistake" of the protocol service that "dealt a blow" to the whole government, calling on organizers to apologize to the Georgian public.

Gunfire could be heard in the video stream by RT's video agency Ruptly from outside the parliament. A group of protesters is attempting to go up the stairs of the building, while riot police in full gear formed a line to stop them.

Aggrieved protesters ransacked the officers of the ruling 'Georgian Dream' party in downtown Tbilisi. Photos by Georgia's 1TV show them throwing party flags out of the window and making a huge bonfire on the ground underneath the offices. It was also reported that some of the rioters smashed car windows and vandalized benches near the party headquarters. The channel reported that protesters were no longer gathered outside the parliament building.

The local media says that dozens from each side were wounded in the clashes, with most of them treated by on-site medics. 40 police officers and 14 protesters were wounded in the clashes, the Georgian Health Ministry said.


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Fire

Israeli settlers torch Palestinian fields over Eid holiday, high court and IDF turn a blind eye

Shatha Hammad
Middle East Eye
Wed, 12 Jun 2019 12:12 UTC
Torched crops in fields set ablaze by Israeli settlers
© MEE/Shatha Hammad
Torched crops in fields set ablaze by Israeli settlers
When Palestinians in villages around Ramallah should have been celebrating the end of Ramadan and the coming harvest, instead they were dousing flames

As the families of al-Mughayyir village prepared to celebrate the start of Eid al-Fitr, Israeli settlers set fire to their fields, twice.

On the first day of Eid, 5 June, the families, who largely depend on their livelihood from farming and shepherding, rushed to the scene only to find their lands northeast of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah engulfed in flames.

Rather than rejoice over the holiday, the village's residents spent the morning putting out the blaze.

A day later, Ayham Abu Naeem received a dismaying call from a friend in the nearby village of Kufr Malek, informing him that his fields, too, had been torched.

In less than an hour, Abu Naeem's months of hard work became a worthless pile of ashes.
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Megaphone

Your tax dollars at work: Journalists, activists disturbed by State Dept's anti-Iran troll campaign


RT
Thu, 20 Jun 2019 18:16 UTC
iran
© Reuters / Benoit Tessier
Victims of anti-Iran trolling campaign were shocked to learn it was taxpayer- funded by the State Department, but not so shocked to see the government attempting to cover it up or mainstream media giving it little coverage.

Journalists, human rights activists, academics, and even outspoken critics of the Iranian government were all targeted by @IranDisinfo, which smeared any and all critics of President Donald Trump's hawkish Iran policy as paid operatives of the regime in social media assaults that some say veered into personal attacks. Now, they want answers as to how this $1.5 million operation - bristling with the hallmarks of a totalitarian propaganda campaign - was allowed to see daylight.

"How can individuals who are not willing to adhere to the norms of American civil society be entrusted with resources to promote civil society in other countries?" asked Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post columnist who was on the troll's hit list - despite spending time in an Iranian jail.
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