The Real Umbrella Corp: Wuhan Ultra Biohazard Lab Was Studying “The World’s Most Dangerous Pathogens”

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Umbrella, Wuhan

23-01-20 07:54:00,

Now that not one but seven Chinese cities – including Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus epidemic – and collectively housing some 23 million people, are under quarantine…

… comparisons to the infamous Raccoon City from Resident Evil are coming in hot and heavy. And, since reality often tends to imitate if not art then certainly Hollywood, earlier today we jokingly asked if the Medical Research Institute at Wuhan University would end up being China’s version of Umbrella Corp.

Is the Medical Research Institute at Wuhan University, Center for Immunology and Metabolism also called “Umbrella Corp” for short?

https://t.co/CnWxs1uVKT

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 23, 2020

As it turns out, it wasn’t a joke, because moments ago it was brought to our attention that in February 2017, Nature penned an extensive profile of what it called the “Chinese lab poised to study world’s most dangerous pathogens.” The location of this BSL-4 rated lab? Why, Wuhan.

A quick read of what this lab was meant to do, prompts the immediate question whether the coronavirus epidemic isn’t a weaponized virus that just happened to escape the lab:

The Wuhan lab cost 300 million yuan (US$44 million), and to allay safety concerns it was built far above the flood plain and with the capacity to withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake, although the area has no history of strong earthquakes. It will focus on the control of emerging diseases, store purified viruses and act as a World Health Organization ‘reference laboratory’ linked to similar labs around the world. “It will be a key node in the global biosafety-lab network,” says lab director Yuan Zhiming.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences approved the construction of a BSL-4 laboratory in 2003, and the epidemic of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) around the same time lent the project momentum. The lab was designed and constructed with French assistance as part of a 2004 cooperative agreement on the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases. But the complexity of the project, China’s lack of experience, difficulty in maintaining funding and long government approval procedures meant that construction wasn’t finished until the end of 2014.

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HSBC Whistleblower Interview: World Economy Would Collapse if Banks Stopped Laundering Money – Activist Post

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in interview, Whistleblower

23-01-20 06:40:00,

By Spiro Skouras

Do you ever wonder why the mainstream corporate media always tries to sell the public half truths, if any truth at all? Why the governments seem to only prosecute and jail members of the public and never the CEOs of companies or heads of organizations responsible for the largest and most wicked crimes?

It has long been an open secret that the banksters are the ones running the world. Governments either turn a blind eye, or are often complicit in financial criminal activity. Instead of attempting to weed out corruption, the governments often facilitate it.

The media, who is supposed to act as the watchdog to keep corruption in check, is owned and controlled by a handful of special interest groups who profit immensely due to the fact that the general public is often unaware that they are even the victims of the institutions and corporations we are indoctrinated to blindly trust.

In this interview, Spiro is joined by HSBC Whistleblower Nicholas Wilson, as Wilson exposes the ongoing crimes being committed by financial institutions to game the system and keep the world’s economy afloat.

Wilson also exposes how multiple governments and the media are not only complicit, but helping to facilitate, perhaps the world’s largest fraud in history.

Links:

Follow Spiro on BitChute bitchute.com/channel/spiro/ Follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/o_rips

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WikiLeaks Editor: US Is Saying First Amendment Doesn’t Apply To Foreigners In Assange Case

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Editor, Wikileaks

23-01-20 05:35:00,

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson gave a brief statement to the press after the latest court hearing for Julian Assange’s extradition case in London today, saying the Trump administration is arguing that the First Amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t provide press freedom protection to foreign nationals like Assange.

“We have now learned from submissions and affidavits presented by the United States to this court that they do not consider foreign nationals to have a First Amendment protection,” Hrafnsson said.

“Now let that sink in for a second,” Hrafnsson continued. “At the same time that the US government is chasing journalists all over the world, they claim they have extra-territorial reach, they have decided that all foreign journalists which include many of you here, have no protection under the First Amendment of the United States. So that goes to show the gravity of this case. This is not about Julian Assange, it’s about press freedom.”

Hrafnsson’s very newsworthy claim has as of this writing received no mainstream news media coverage at all. The video above is from independent reporter Gordon Dimmack.

This prosecutorial strategy would be very much in alignment with remarks made in 2017 by then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

“Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms. He’s sitting in an embassy in London. He’s not a U.S. citizen,” Pompeo told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

That, like nearly every sound which emits from Pompeo’s amorphous face, was a lie. The First Amendment is not a set of special free speech privileges that the US government magnanimously bestows upon a few select individuals, it’s a limitation placed upon the US government’s ability to restrict rights that all persons everywhere are assumed to have.

This is like a sex offender who’s barred from living within 500 yards of a school claiming that the school he moved in next to is exempt because it’s full of immigrants who therefore aren’t protected by his restriction. It’s a restriction placed on the government, not a right that is given to certain people.

Attorney and Future of Freedom Foundation president Jacob Hornberger explained after Pompeo’s remarks, “As Jefferson points out,

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‘We simply can’t get in’: Assange lawyer complains about lack of access to WikiLeaks founder

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Assange, simply

23-01-20 03:54:00,

A lawyer representing Julian Assange has told a London court that the WikiLeaks founder’s legal team is being restricted from meeting him and it is hampering preparation for his trial on extradition to the United States.

Queen’s Counsel Edward Fitzgerald told Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday that he has had great difficulty gaining access to Assange in Belmarsh prison to discuss evidence and take instructions from the Australian.

Also on rt.com
WATCH: Assange caught on camera leaving UK court in prison van after US extradition hearing

The 48-year-old is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to expose military secrets.

“We simply can’t get in as we require to see Mr Assange and take instructions … we need time to deal with that,” Fitzgerald said.

“We need to deal with [the] points raised in the US Attorney General’s statement. The reality is we are not ready to call the main body of our evidence,” the senior lawyer added.

Assange appeared in court via video link, saluting his supporters with a raised fist during the proceedings.

Lawyers representing the United States also made applications seeking more time to prepare for the hearings and Judge Vanessa Baraitser agreed that the extradition hearing will be split in two.

“He will remain in custody in the cells until you have indicated to this court that you have concluded such matters as you were able to manage,” the judge said.

The journalist’s extradition hearing will now be heard during one week in February and three weeks in May and June. The first part will take place at Woolwich Crown Court and it will cover arguments that the extradition is politically motivated and an abuse of process.

Also on rt.com
UN envoy says UK ‘contributed’ to Assange’s torture, urges British govt to release him immediately

Assange has been in custody since he was dramatically removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in April 2019. He was initially jailed for the minor offense of skipping bail after going into hiding in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex offense allegations made against him in 2010.

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Trump Parties in Davos While Ordinary Americans Struggle to Make Ends Meet – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Parties, Trump

23-01-20 03:52:00,

The annual Davos billionaire’s ball — aka World Economic Forum — continues until Friday.

Once a year, prominent movers and shakers gather together in Switzerland to plot their next moves for greater self-enrichment at the expense of exploited masses.

They’ve never had things better, but it’s never enough, using money to make more of it, indifferent to the real world of ordinary people, uncaring about their daily struggle to get by.

On Tuesday, Trump addressed the forum, his usual display of bombast, bravado, Big Lies and deception featured, wrapped in the American flag — likely fooling his faithful back home, his public remarks and tweets intended for them.

The “great American comeback” he trumpeted about (pun intended) exists only for the privileged few, no others.

His claim about an “economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before (sic)” fooled no one in Davos or anyone back home struggling daily to make ends meet, including millions of hungry/food insecure Americans, the unemployed and underemployed.

Inside his White House, Mar-a-Lago, and Davos bubbles, it’s paradise. Outside for most Americans, it’s dystopian hell or bordering it.

Countless millions of US households face unacceptable choices between paying rent or servicing mortgages, seeking high-cost medical care when needed, heating homes in winter, feeding family members, and juggling other expenses — a disturbing reality far removed from Trump’s luxury lifestyle.

A massive disconnect exists between soaring equity prices and dismal economic conditions for most Americans.

Economist David Rosenberg believes there’s an 80% chance for recession this year, largely because high household debt, adding:

The US has “the mother of all credit bubbles…on corporate balance sheets.”

“I thing people will be surprised at how weak the economy is” this year.

Economist John Williams said risks exist for a “major financial crisis.” His recession forecast is unchanged, saying:

His “broad outlook in the weeks and months ahead remains in place for: (1) a continued intensifying US economic downturn in meaningful underlying series such as production and retail sales, reflected in (2) mounting selling pressure on the US dollar, against currencies such as the Swiss Franc,

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The Corporate Debt Bubble Is A Train Wreck In Slow Motion – Activist Post

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Bubble, Corporate

23-01-20 10:41:00,

By Brandon Smith

There are two subjects that the mainstream media seems specifically determined to avoid discussing these days when it comes to the economy – the first is the problem of falling global demand for goods and services; they absolutely refuse to acknowledge the fact that demand is going stagnant and will conjure all kinds of rationalizations to distract from the issue. The other subject is the debt bubble, the corporate debt bubble in particular.

These two factors alone guarantee a massive shock to the global economy and the US economy are built into the system, but I believe corporate debt is the key pillar of the false economy. It has been utilized time and time again to keep the Everything Bubble from completely deflating; however, the fundamentals are starting to catch up to the fantasy.

For example, in terms of stock markets, which are now meaningless as an indicator of the health of the real economy, corporate stock buybacks have been the single most vital mechanism for inflation. Corporations buy their own stocks, often using cash borrowed from each other and from the Federal Reserve, in order to reduce the number of shares on the market and artificially boost the value of the remaining shares. This process is essentially legal manipulation of equities, and to be sure, it has been effective so far at keeping markets elevated.

The problem is that these same corporations are taking on more and more debt through interest payments in order to maintain the facade. Over the period of a decade, corporate debt has skyrocketed back to levels not seen since 2007, just before the credit crisis. The official corporate debt load now stands at over $10 trillion, and that’s not even counting derivatives exposure. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the amount of derivatives still held by corporations stands at around $544 trillion in notional value (theoretical value), while the current market value is only around $10 trillion. This is a massive discrepancy that can only lead to disaster.

In terms of debt-to-GDP, the credit cycle peak has spiked beyond any other peak in the past 40 years.

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Thailand: The Lingering Spectre of US Colour Revolutions | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-ABon 23 januari 2020in Lingering, Thailand

23-01-20 09:45:00,

Thailand’s opposition is openly backed by powerful foreign interests, particularly those in Washington. As the opposition attempts to secure power and help serve as a vector for Western special interests, the spectre of a Western-sponsored “colour revolution” increasingly looms over Thailand’s future.

Thailand is a key Southeast Asian nation, with the second largest economy in the ASEAN regional bloc and a key regional partner for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). By disrupting Thailand’s political status quo, Washington hopes to introduce complications to China’s regional and global rise.

Taking to the Streets

In early December Thai opposition party “Future Forward” took to the streets with several hundred protesters, obstructing pedestrian bridges and sidewalks in downtown Bangkok.

While Future Forward’s defacto leader, billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, claimed he clogged Bangkok’s downtown shopping district with followers to fight for “democracy” and “freedom,” it was abundantly clear the mob he assembled was a direct reaction to recent court cases leveled against him and his party for repeated and blatant violations of Thai election laws.

This included Thanathorn’s holding of media shares while campaigning which is illegal under Thai law. It also includes a supposed “loan” Thanathorn made worth tens of millions of Thai baht to his own party, a loan the party itself has no means of ever paying back, meaning that it was in fact a donation and therefore absolutely illegal under Thai election laws.

Rather than face justice, Thanathorn has assembled a street mob as a means of hanging the threat of eventual violence over the head of Thailand’s courts in hopes of either reversing case decisions or reducing the penalties resulting from various court rulings.

Should nations like the US aid and abet Thanathorn’s street politics, the potential for widespread violence may allow Thanathorn and his political machine to exercise further leverage not only to circumvent justice, but to assume the power and influence his party failed to render from general elections earlier this year. Future Forward came in distant 3rd.

The Spectre of Malign Foreign Interference

The most troubling aspect of Thanathorn’s recent foray into street politics is his open and deep ties to fellow billionaire and now fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra and his own use of violent street politics to divide Thai society and to pressure Thailand’s institutions into making concessions.

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Is the New “Deadly China Virus” a Covert Operation? – Activist Post

Posted by EN-ABon 22 januari 2020in China, Deadly

22-01-20 09:35:00,

By Jon Rappoport

NEW VIRUS IN CHINA. WATCH OUT. SPREADING. ANIMALS TO HUMANS? PANDEMIC COMING UP? OBEY MEDICAL AUTHORITIES. ALL HANDS ON DECK. CENTERED IN WUHAN. CITY OF 11 MILLION. WILL THEY QUARANTINE AND SHUT DOWN HONG KONG? TRAVELERS WITH THE VIRUS GETTING THROUGH TO EUROPE AND AMERICA? WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE VIRUS? 2019-nCOV or nCoV2019. WHAT? THANK GOD THE CHINESE ARE UNDER A TIGHT DICTATORSHIP, THEY CAN CRACK DOWN AND QUARANTINE ANYBODY ON A WHIM. IF YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE IS ELEVATED ON A TEST, THEY STOP YOU? WOW. WE MAY NEED THAT IN THE USA, AS LONG AS THEY DON’T STOP ME. IMPEACHMENT? FORGET THAT, IT’S THE VIRUS.

In the 19 years of this website, the one story I’ve researched and covered more than any other is the DEADLY VIRUS hustle. SARS, Swine Flu, Ebola, etc.

Now, we have a new one. The possible maybe CORONAVIRUS from China.

In each case of these could-be killers, we have an official warning. “This could be the big one.” Millions of people could fall ill and die. In each case, there are travelers. “People returning from X have the virus and they are spreading it.” In the case of SARS and Swine Flu, the patients’ symptoms were typical “flu” symptoms: fever, fatigue, cough, weakness. In other words, there was no reason to think the “new disease” was any different from ordinary traditional illness.

The big and only difference is the claim that researchers have found a new virus as the cause of illness.

But in each case, there are serious problems with that claim.

First, only “official researchers” are involved with the “discovery” of the new virus. There is no confirmation from independent researchers. For example, in the case of SARS (2003), ten labs belonging to the World Health Organization (WHO) performed the “discovery” of that coronavirus. They were connected through closed circuit—no outsiders allowed.

Eventually, a Canadian biologist working for WHO, Frank Plummer, told the press he was quite puzzled by what he was seeing: more and more SARS patients didn’t have the SARS virus at all. In fact, almost no new SARS patients had the virus. Well,

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French Intellectual Sentenced To 2 Months Jail After Calling Mass Immigration An “Invasion”

Posted by EN-ABon 22 januari 2020in French, Intellectual

22-01-20 01:57:00,

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

French intellectual Renaud Camus has been given a 2 month suspended prison sentence for saying that mass immigration into Europe represents an “invasion.”

Camus will only avoid jail by paying 1800 euros to two “anti-racist” organizations, SOS Racisme and the LICRA (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism).

The writer, who is the author of Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), was charged with “public incitement to hate or violence on the basis of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.”

The conviction stems from a November 2017 speech in Colombey-les-deux Eglises to the National Council of European Resistance in which Camus declared, “Immigration has become an invasion.”

“The irreversible colonization is demographic colonization, by the replacement of the population,” said the author, adding,

“The ethnic substitution, the great replacement, is the most important event in the history of our nation since it has existed; as with other people, if the story continues, it will not be that of France.”

Camus also called for a “national consensus of resistance” to oppose Islamization in “the struggle for the salvation of our common civilization, Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, Greek-Latin, Judeo-Christian.”

The part of Camus’ speech that specifically garnered the attention of judges was when he talked about European people being replaced.

Camus said mass immigration “is the substitution, the tendency to substitute everything with its emulator, normalized, standardized, interchangeable: The original with its copy, the authentic with its imitation, the true with the false, the mothers with surrogate mothers, the culture with free time and entertainment.”

France suffers Islamic terror attacks on such a routine basis that it’s barely even an important news story anymore. Many of those terrorists are radicalized by mosques that escape any police scrutiny, but Camus must be punished for his crime of opinion.

And there you have it. Free speech is now a crime in France.

* * *

My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here.

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The Empire’s War On Oppositional Journalism Continues To Escalate

Posted by EN-ABon 22 januari 2020in Empire, Oppositional

22-01-20 08:51:00,

Journalist Glenn Greenwald has been charged by the Bolsonaro government in Brazil with the same prosecutorial angle used by the US to target WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Per The New York Times:

Citing intercepted messages between Mr. Greenwald and the hackers, prosecutors say the journalist played a “clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime.”

For instance, prosecutors contend that Mr. Greenwald encouraged the hackers to delete archives that had already been shared with The Intercept Brasil, in order to cover their tracks.

Prosecutors also say that Mr. Greenwald was communicating with the hackers while they were actively monitoring private chats on Telegram, a messaging app. The complaint charged six other individuals, including four who were detained last year in connection with the cellphone hacking.

This argument is essentially indistinguishable from the argument currently being used by the Trump administration in charging Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act. The US Department of Justice alleges that Assange attempted to provide Private Manning with advice and assistance in covering her tracks while leaking documents she already had access to, therefore making Assange party to a conspiracy against the United States.

It is not surprising that Brazil is advancing the same war on journalism we’ve been seeing in the US, UK, Australia and France. With the election of the overtly fascist Jair Bolsonaro in October 2018 (an election whose corrupt foundations were exposed by Greenwald’s reporting with The Intercept Brasil), the Brazilian government moved into full alignment with the the US-centralized empire, which was why his inauguration was enthusiastically celebrated by characters like Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Benjamin Netanyahu.

In exactly the same way we saw a coordination between the US, UK, Sweden, Ecuador and Australia to immobilize, and then silence, and then imprison Julian Assange, we are seeing a uniform movement toward silencing oppositional journalism throughout the entire US-centralized empire. This is because a rising China and the increasing coziness of the cluster of nations which have resisted absorption into the imperial blob greatly imperil the USA’s position as the unipolar global dominator,

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Syrian Fighters Abandon Libyan War, Flee Towards Italy: Report

Posted by EN-ABon 22 januari 2020in fighters, Syrian

22-01-20 08:48:00,

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

Some Syrian fighters that went to fight in Libya have since abandoned the war and fled to Italy, opposition media sites claimed, as cited by Al-Watan.

According to the reports, at least 17 of the Syrian fighters have already arrived in Italy after spending a short period of time inside Libya.

Image via AMN

The reports said that the Syrian fighters intentionally accepted the deployment to Libya in order to later escape into Italy.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), some 2,400 Syrian fighters have already traveled to Libya thus far.

Another 1,200 fighters from a number of factions in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are expected to make their way to Libya in the coming weeks. Middle East-based reporter for The Investigative Journal Lindsey Snell was told by a Libyan National Army (LNA) source:

“The mercenaries don’t believe that they will be returning to Turkey or Syria, so trying to get to Europe is the most logical option for them,” the source said.

Our #TIJ Exclusive; 3,000 Syrian mercenaries flew to Libya from Turkey. Cost of the trip from az-Zawiyah, Libya to Italy rose from $700 to $1300 “The mercenaries don’t believe that they will be returning to Turkey or Syria, 147 mercenaries paid down payments go to Europe” https://t.co/YLVoWTjuqT

— Mohamed Fahmy (@MFFahmy11) January 21, 2020

“And now, according to the LNA source, it appears that one escaped ISIS member managed to join a Turkish-backed militant faction bound for Libya and attempt to make his way to Europe,” The Investigative Journal reported further.

Last month, Bloomberg News released a story about Turkey offering contracts to Syrian fighters in order to help the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA).

Since then, several fighters have been seen inside of Libya, most notably near the capital city of Tripoli.

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‘Absolute red alert’: Journalist Glenn Greenwald charged with cybercrimes in Brazil

Posted by EN-ABon 21 januari 2020in Absolute, ALERT

21-01-20 07:18:00,

Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald has been accused of hacking the cellphones of Brazilian prosecutors and public officials in a criminal case launched on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors charged Greenwald with cybercrimes for his role in publishing leaked cellphone messages that have embarrassed the Bolsonaro administration and its anti-corruption task force, as well as charging him with membership of a “criminal organization.”

Greenwald had already butted heads with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, with the journalist referring to him as a “wannabe dictator,” and the president vowing not to expel the journalist from the country but instead to imprison him.

Also on rt.com
Greenwald calls Brazil’s Bolsonaro a ‘wannabe dictator’ after threats of ‘jail’ for explosive leaks

Greenwald’s news organization The Intercept Brasil, which he co-founded in 2016, has published numerous bombshell reports featuring a multitude of leaked messages, incriminating sitting Minister for Justice Sergio Moro for undermining Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party and preventing former president Lula da Silva from returning to power, thus paving the way for Bolsonaro to take power in 2018.

The messages also appeared to show that Moro, then a federal judge, coached and strategized with prosecutors handling the corruption case against da Silva in 2017. Moro later went on to become Bolsonaro’s minister for justice.

Prosecutors maintain that Greenwald played a “clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime,” by telling hackers to delete their own archives to help cover their tracks from Brazilian prosecutors.

Greenwald’s long-time friend and ally, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. tweeted that the charges were “naked retaliation for revealing extreme corruption at the highest levels of Bolsonaro’s administration.”

In a statement, Greenwald described the charges as “an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation” for the damaging reports about Moro and the Bolsonaro government in general.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

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US dollar collapse will happen this year, gold fund manager tells RT’s Keiser Report

Posted by EN-ABon 21 januari 2020in Collapse, Dollar

21-01-20 07:11:00,

Central banks have been buying massive amounts of gold over the last 50 years, purchasing a historic high of 374.1 tons in 2019. The unprecedented shift has been seen by many as a move away from the US dollar.

The interesting thing, according to Egon von Greyerz of GoldSwitzerland.com, is that not every country is buying gold. He told RT’s Keiser Report that mainly Eastern central banks have been piling up the shiny metal. “We are talking about Russia and China, Turkey, Poland, and Hungary.”

Russia and China are the ones that are “really seeing what’s happening,” he says. “They know that the dollar is going to collapse.”

According to Greyerz, China, which didn’t reveal its true position of gold holdings, “might… have 20,000 tons that they have gathered over a long period of time.”

“Russia and China see that the dollar days are counted, and I agree with that totally. At some point it [dollar collapse] should happen this year and I think it will. We are going to see the dollar collapse and that would be very serious for the world and of course very serious for the United States,” he says.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

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FIRST GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST 5G GATHERS MOMENTUM

Posted by EN-ABon 21 januari 202021 januari 2020in Algemeen

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George Soros Launches Campaign to Silence “Climate Deniers” on YouTube! – Activist Post

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in George, Soros

20-01-20 06:56:00,

By Spiro Skouras

Many would agree that climate change is perhaps the biggest and most critically important issue that we face globally as a society. And I personally would agree with that 100%. But it all depends on which side of the fence you land on. And of course just like any argument, or debate, there are at least two sides to every story.

One side is currently being championed as the people who want to save the world, young people mainly, who are willing to speak out against the establishment and their evil ways for the good for mankind and mother earth. This side of the argument which portrays itself as grassroots, just so happens to fall in line essentially word for word with the establishment, whom they blame for this supposed climate crisis.

The other side of the argument is anyone who dares to even question the legitimacy, or science behind the claims that the world is about to end unless we do something about man made climate change right now! This side is known as the climate deniers. That’s right, if you wish to have an open discussion, dialogue, ask questions, engage in a debate or any such action which does not fall in line with the UN 2030 climate agenda you are part of the problem and must be silenced.

This report exposes how billionaire powerhouse George Soros is bankrolling a campaign to silence ‘climate deniers’ on YouTube. How can we have a civilized discussion that could potentially lead to a solution, if one side of the debate is being silenced by a collaborative campaign with special interests and a loaded deck?

Links:

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US Boosts Funding of Tech Companies to Help Anti-Tehran Protests – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in Boosts, Funding

20-01-20 05:15:00,

US-backed companies record rise in use of circumvention apps in recent weeks

US government-funded technology companies have recorded an increase in the use of circumvention software in Iran in recent weeks after boosting efforts to help Iranian anti-regime protesters thwart internet censorship and use secure mobile messaging.

The outreach is part of a US government programme dedicated to internet freedom that supports dissident pressure inside Iran and complements America’s policy of “maximum pressure” over the regime.

A US state department official told the Financial Times that since protests in Iran in 2018 — at the time the largest in almost a decade — Washington had accelerated efforts to provide Iranians more options on how they communicate with each other and the outside world.

The US-supported measures include providing apps, servers and other technology to help people communicate, visit banned websites, install anti-tracking software and navigate data shutdowns. Many Iranians rely on virtual private networks (VPNs) that receive US funding or are beamed in with US support, not knowing they are relying on Washington-backed tools.

“We work with technological companies to help free flow of information and provide circumvention tools that helped in [last week’s] protest,” a second US state department official told the FT. “We are able to sponsor VPNs — and that allows Iranians to use the internet.”

The US Treasury department has issued waivers for such software and services, despite the Trump administration’s imposition of swingeing sanctions when it withdrew from the 2015 international nuclear accord.

To read the complete Financial Times article, click here

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How an “International Shadowy Group” Is Influencing India’s Food Policy – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in International, Shadowy

20-01-20 05:12:00,

International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), an American nonprofit with an innocuous sounding name has been quietly infiltrating Indian government’s health and nutrition bodies influencing India’s food policy on behalf of the chemical industry.

New Food Packaging Labeling Rules

Last year the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposed to introduce a traffic light labelling measure, with red spots being used to warn of high fat, sugar or salt content in packaged foods. The FSSAI said these would form the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018.

The draft regulation states that packaged food manufacturers and firms are required to declare nutritional information such as calories (energy), total fat, trans-fat, total sugar and salt per serve, as well as per serve percentage contribution to the recommended dietary allowance (RDA).

The new label will be front-of-pack. Other requirements in the comprehensive set of guidelines include a symbol on the label indicating whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian food (a green triangle or brown circle, respectively).

Red list

Most significantly, it would be mandatory for food products with high fat, sugar or salt content to display a red-coloured mark on the front-of-pack label.

“The blocks of nutrients for “High Fat, Sugar and Salt” (HFSS) food shall be coloured red in the case where the value of energy (kcal) from total sugar is more than 10 percent of the total energy (kcal) provided by the 100 g/100 ml of the product; the value of energy (kcal) from trans-fat is more than 1 percent of the total energy (kcal) provided by the 100 g/100 ml of the product; and total fat or sodium content provided by the 100 g/100 ml of the product is more than the threshold values,” the draft regulation stated.

It added: “The Food Authority may introduce colour coding system in addition to marking of foods as ‘Red’ within the specified thresholds from time to time.” Furthermore, it stated that it would be prohibited for HFSS food products to be advertised, in any form, to children.

Mandatory GM labelling

In a first, the draft regulation also stated a need to declare genetically modified ingredients on the labels.

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Not to become the world’s garbage dump: Malaysia sends back thousands of tons of trash

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in garbage, World

20-01-20 05:08:00,

Malaysia has returned 150 shipping containers loaded with plastic waste, with the country’s environment minister saying it won’t become the “garbage dump of the world.”

Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin announced the return of the containers, which had been imported illegally, on Monday. The containers held more than 3,700 tons of plastic waste, and originated from 13 countries. Forty-three came from France, 42 from the UK, 17 from the US, and 11 from Canada.

The cost of returning the containers was paid by the exporting countries and shipping lines, Yeo said, declaring “we don’t want to pay a single cent.”

“People dump the rubbish into your country, we are not supposed to pay them to send it back,” she added.

Also on rt.com
Cleaning house: Indonesia returns yet more ‘contaminated’ Aussie garbage

Another 110 containers will be sent back in the near future, she said, 60 of them to the United States.

“[We] will take the necessary steps to ensure that Malaysia does not become the garbage dump of the world,” Yeo stated.

Western nations shipped their plastic waste to China for processing and recycling for years, but were forced to look for new destinations in 2018 when the Chinese government banned foreign waste imports.

The burden has since fallen heavily on southeast Asia, though countries in the region are also growing tired of cleaning up the West’s messes. Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia have all returned shipments of plastic waste to the West in recent months, with Indonesia claiming it was receiving “contaminated” trash.

Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte threatened last May to personally sail across the Pacific with 69 containers worth of Canadian waste and dump it in Canadian waters. The same month, Malaysia announced it was returning 450 tons of imported waste to its source countries.

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The Mad Geopolitics of Israel’s EastMed Gas Pipeline | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in Geopolitics, Israel

20-01-20 10:29:00,

At just a time when the world holds its collective breath over risk of a World War over the US assassination of Iran’s leading general and other provocations, Israel has chosen to sign a natural gas pipeline deal with Greece and Cyprus that is the equivalent of tossing a loaded hand grenade into the hyper-tense region.

Until some months ago it was doubtful whether Israel’s long-touted EastMed gas pipeline deal with Cyprus and Greece would see the light of day. Despite being backed by the US and the EU as an alternative to Russian gas, the EastMed as it is known, is dubious on many grounds, not the least its high cost compared with alternatives. The January 2 signing by the governments of Israel, Greece and Cyprus is directly connected to provocative moves by Turkey’s Erdogan to conspire with Libya to illegally declare almost all of the Eastern Mediterranean waters to be a Turkish and now Libyan Exclusive Economic Zone.

If Mideast tensions were not already at the breaking point, the Israeli move throws a huge monkey wrench into the region’s troubled geopolitics.

As recently as December, 2019 the Israeli companies involved in their offshore Leviathan gas field were openly discussing further options for export of the gas following an export agreement with Egypt and Jordan. The EastMed pipeline was not mentioned in Israeli media.

What has changed the situation was the announcement by Turkey’s President Erdogan that he was sending Turkish troops to defend the Tripoli UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli of Fayez al Sarraj, on their request, to counter the forces of General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).

Libya has the potential to become a major new explosion point in the rapidly-deteriorating Middle East terrain. Haftar is backed by Russia, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and yes, France, and secretly since 2017 by Israel. Since April 2019 Haftar has been moving to take Tripoli from his stronghold in the oil-rich east. The GNA in Tripoli in turn is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy. The EU is desperately trying to mediate a truce between the GNA and Haftar after Putin failed some days ago.

The Mediterranean energy clashes

As Cyprus has discovered rich offshore fields of natural gas in addition to those of Israel at Leviathan,

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The Court of Appeal of Turin Confirms the Link Between a Head Tumour and Mobile Phone Use – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in appeal, Court

20-01-20 09:49:00,

The Court of Appeal of Turin confirms in a full judgment published on 13 January 2020 (904/2019 of 3.12.2019 , Romeo v. INAIL) the decision of the Tribunal of Ivrea of 2017. Judge Fadda considers that the worker’s acoustic neuroma (benign tumour of the head) was indeed caused by the use of the mobile phone.

According to the Court:

“there is protective scientific jurisprudence that supports the assertion of causation based on criteria of “more likely than not”. P.33.”

And to add:

“Epidemiological data, the results of experiments on animals (not contradicted, at present, by other experiments of the same type), the duration and intensity of exposure … which are particularly important in view of the dose-response relationship established – at the scientific level – between exposure to mobile phone radiofrequencies and the risk of acoustic neuroma, as well as the absence of any other factor which could have caused the disease”.

The scientific analysis by independent experts appointed by the Court confirms the causal link

All the scientific elements of the case were re-examined and re-analysed by two new experts appointed by the Court of Turin (Carolina Marino, Angelo D’Errico). The Court of Appeal fully accepted their conclusions and rejected INAIL’s* appeal, stating that CTU had provided:

“strong evidence to assert a causal role between the complainant’s occupational exposure, his exposure to radiation from mobile phones and the disease that occurred”.

This is the second Italian appeal judgment in favour of a worker after the Brescia judgment in 2010, which concluded with the confirmation of the Supreme Court in 2012, case of Marcolini v. INAIL. In this case, the Court of Bergamo had rejected the application in first instance.

A landmark judgment that will have international repercussions

The Romeo v. INAIL case is therefore historic. It is the first in world judicial history to have had two consecutive judgments in favour of the plaintiff. It is also historic because of the principles underlying this decision and particularly because it is written about the conflicts of interest of certain experts close to the mobile phone industry.

Conflicts of interest and the role of the ICNIRP pinpointed by the Tribunal

Indeed,

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Trump Transforms the Middle East into NATO’s “Area of Responsibility” | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-ABon 20 januari 2020in Transforms, Trump

20-01-20 09:33:00,

There’s been no shortage of cultural and political figures over the last couple of centuries who would show interest towards the incredibly rich history of the Middle East. Essentially, this region gave birth to economy as we know it, a handful of ancient civilizations on top of three of world’s major religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The United States started showing interest towards the Greater Middle East (that includes North Africa, Iran and Afghanistan on top of the Levant) as early as in the 19th century, when 20% of its maritime trade was with the Middle East.

However, a lot has changed since those days, both in Washington’s assessment of the role that the Middle East plays in the global affairs and in the way it approaches individual players of this region.

In the aftermath of WWII, in a bid to win trust of the people of Asia and Africa, Washington opposed attempts made to preserve the British Empire and ousted the UK from the Middle East. This resulted in the Arabs taking Washington’s peaceful intentions at face value, as they assumed that it would try to bring stability to the region. However, it didn’t take long for the United States to start subjugating Israel to its will, and then proceeding with attempts to push the USSR out of the Arab world, in spite of the latter remaining a principal advocate of the socio-economic transformation of a great many of Middle Eastern states.

These days, with a grand total of 52 American bases scattered across the region, there’s no arguing that the United States is hell-bent to dominate the region and its policies, with the local governments being treated as obedient puppets that are only there to wilfully provide a resource base for the sole hegemone. This determination results in Washington finding itself unable to compromise on a number of objectives that can hardly be achieved independently, while one’s desire to secure them all at the same time can only be described as a dangerous delusion. Among those objectives are ensuring America’s control over the entirety of hydrocarbon production of the region, preserving Israel’s primacy in regional affairs, limiting Iran’s role and the influence it enjoys, ensuring that those wealthy regional players carry on buying American weapons in large quantities.

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Syrian Jihadists Filmed Jet-Setting To Next Proxy War On Commercial Plane

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 2020in Jihadists, Syrian

19-01-20 07:36:00,

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued warning that terrorist groups as well as a ‘flood of refugees’ will show up on Europe’s shores if the Tripoli government were to fall to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, amid his continued offensive to control the Libyan capital. Erdogan’s statement came a day before he heads to Berlin for a major peace conference which will attempt to halt the fighting.

And yet look who’s sending actual jihadists into the already war-ravaged country on comfortable commercial jets:

Wasn’t this supposed to be a “covert” operation?

Footage is allegedly showing Syrian rebels in a jet, getting transferred to Libya in support of UN-backed government in Tripoli. pic.twitter.com/536iLwyVTD

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) January 18, 2020

Middle East media outlet Arab News describes the footage as follows:

A video has emerged showing dozens of what appear to be Syrian rebels on an Afriqiyah Airways plane headed to Libya where they will allegedly fight alongside the country’s Government of National Accord (GNA), Libyan newspaper Al-Shahid has claimed.

In the video, the men — three of whom were seen wearing military uniforms — are on their way to Libya where they will reportedly fight as mercenaries for the GNA’s militias.

The shocking video of what is supposed to be a “covert” Turkey-sponsored mission to bolster the Tripoli GNA government with both Syrian jihadist FSA mercenaries (and separately Turkish national troops) confirms new reporting in The Guardian this week.

According to the bombshell Guardian report:

Two thousand Syrian fighters have traveled from Turkey or will arrive imminently to fight on the battlefields of Libya, Syrian sources in all three countries have said, in an unprecedented development that threatens to further complicate the north African state’s intractable civil war.

The deployment came after Turkey agreed last month to come to the aid of the Libyan prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, who is backed by the UN, in the face of a months-long campaign by his rival, the warlord Khalifa Haftar.

This perhaps makes Erdogan’s latest ‘warning’ appear something more like a ‘threat’ in which he’s the one actually holding the trigger.

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Video: The WHO’s Vaccine Experts Inadvertently Communicate to the World that “Vaccine Hesitancy” Makes Scientific Sense – Global Research

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 2020in Vaccine, Video

19-01-20 03:48:00,

In this expose, the WHO vaccine experts admit that:

Vaccines can be fatal.
The design of safety studies makes it difficult to spot problems.
Safety monitoring is inadequate.
Vaccine adjuvants increase risk.

“The FDA receives 45% of its annual budget from the pharmaceutical industry.

The World Health Organization (WHO) gets roughly half its budget from private sources, including Pharma and its allied foundations.

And the CDC, frankly, is a vaccine company; it owns 56 vaccine patents and buys and distributes $4.6 billion in vaccines annually through the Vaccines for Children program, which is over 40% of its total budget.” — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

1) An admission that adjuvants can multiply the toxicity of vaccines:

“Adjuvants multiply the immunogenicity of the antigens that they are added to, and that is their intention. It seems to me they multiply the reactogenicity in many instances, and therefore it seems to me that it is not unexpected if they multiply the incidence of adverse reactions that are associated with the antigen, but may not have been detected through lack of statistical power in the original studies.” — Stephen Evans, BA, MSc, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

2) Warnings about long-term systemic toxicity from vaccine adjuvants:

“You are correct. As we add adjuvants, especially some of the more recent adjuvants, such as the ASO1, saponin-derived adjuvants, we do see increased local reactogenicity. The primary concern, though, usually is systemic adverse events rather than local adverse events. And we tend to get in the Phase II and the Phase III studies quite good data on the local reactogenicity. Those of us in this room that are beyond the age of 50 who have had the pleasure of having the recent shingles vaccine, will know that this does have quite significant local reactogenicity. If you got the vaccine, you know that you got the vaccine. But this is not the major health concern. The major health concern which we are seeing are accusations of long term,

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New LED streetlights may double cancer risk, new research warns

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 2020in Double, streetlights

19-01-20 12:43:00,

Britain’s new generation of street lights risk dramatically increasing rates of breast and prostate cancer, according to a new study.

Scientists have warned officials to consider limiting the roll-out of LED (light-emitting diode) lights after an investigation indicated a “strong link” between the technology and the disease.

Hundreds of thousands of street lights have so far been switched to LED, which are cheaper to run and result in lower emissions, while approximately 30 per cent of the the lights on motorways and A roads in England have also been upgraded.

However, analysis of more than 4,000 people living in 11 separate regions of Spain established a link between heavy exposure to the LED lighting and a doubling of the risk of prostate cancer, as well as a 1.5-times higher chance of breast cancer.

The nature of the study means researchers cannot prove a causal link, but they believe the “blue light” emitted by the LEDs may be disrupting the body’s circadian rhythm, which in turn affects hormone levels.

Both breast and prostate cancers are hormone-related.

The research team at the University of Exeter and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health said their findings may also implicate the nighttime use of mobile phones and tablets, which also emit blue light, in cancer development.

Dr Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, from Exeter, said: “Humans have evolved to need light during the day and darkness at night.

“As towns and cities replace older lighting, we’re all exposed to higher levels of “blue” lights, which can disrupt our biological clocks.”

“It’s imperative that we know for sure whether this increases our risk of cancer.

“Scientists have long suspected this may be the case – now our innovative findings indicate a strong link.”

Blue light is a range of the visible light spectrum emitted by most white LEDs and many tablet, phone and TV screens.

It has one of the shortest, highest-energy wavelengths and previous research has indicated that exposure to blue-spectrum light decreases the production and secretion of the melatonin hormone.

Melatonin plays a key role in regulating the day-night cycles and has several other key functions – for example it is a powerful anti-oxidant and has also an anti-inflammatory function.

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Watch: The Fed’s Evil Juggernaut

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 2020in Fed's, Watch

19-01-20 10:22:00,

Authored by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

Juggernaut: (n) massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path

The US Federal Reserve is once again force-feeding liquidity into the system. At its fastest rate ever.

The result? Record high stock prices whose valuations defy all logic.

What’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t we just enjoy the party and be grateful for our rising 401ks?

What’s wrong is that the Fed’s actions are dooming us. Their poisonous cocktail of endless cheap money and rock-bottom interest rates is hastening a terminal breakdown of the economy, while deliberately enriching a tiny cadre of elites to the ruin of everyone else.

Though most remain blind to this, Fed policy (and the similar ones pursued by the other major world central banks) is directly responsible for, or a major contributor to, many of the biggest challenges society is facing.

Tens of millions of Boomers who can’t afford to retire. Tens of millions of Millennials who can’t afford to purchase a home. History’s largest wealth gap between the 1% and everyone else. Relentless increases in the cost of living while real wages remain stagnant. Depletion and degradation of our key natural resources by zombie companies run without profits. We can thank the Fed for all of these ills, plus many more.

All we’re offered in return is the fake reassurance that “everything is awesome” because stocks are higher today than they were yesterday. As if that really makes a difference when the top 1% owns 50% of all stocks and the top 10% owns over 90%.

And when today’s epicly distorted markets reach their breaking point — which may be imminent given the truly manic action recently — not only will the resulting damage be commensurately epic, but it will injure the 99% FAR more than the 1% who benefitted from it.

Mass layoffs. Bankruptcies. Destroyed retirement portfolios and pensions. State and city budget crises. Higher taxes. More fees. Cancelled social services. Hollowed-out communities.

The Fed’s deliberate policy of privatized gains for the elite and socialized losses for the masses ensures that Joe Sixpack is going to take it in the shorts while Reginald Caviar-Maybach will still receive his record bonus from Goldman Sachs.

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False Flag? Fmr CIA Officer Suggests US Hacked Ukrainian Plane Transponder To Provoke Iran Shootdown

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 2020in False, Officer

19-01-20 10:09:00,

Philip Giraldi, a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the CIA, penned a piece in the American Herald Tribune speculating that the U.S. launched several cyber-attacks, one on an Iranian missile defense system, and another on the transponder of the doomed Ukrainian plane.

Giraldi explains the Iranian missile operator experienced extreme “jamming” and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752’s transponder was switched off several minutes before the two Russian made Tor missiles were launched.

“The shutdown of the transponder, which would have automatically signaled to the operator and Tor electronics that the plane was civilian, instead automatically indicated that it was hostile. The operator, having been particularly briefed on the possibility of incoming American cruise missiles, then fired,” he said.

Giraldi said the Tor missile system used by Iran is vulnerable to being hacked or “spoofed,” and at the same moment, Flight 752’s transponder was taken offline “to create an aviation accident that would be attributed to the Iranian government.”

The Pentagon has reportedly developed technologies that can trick enemy radars with false and deceptively moving targets, he said.

“The same technology can, of course, be used to alter or even mask the transponder on a civilian airliner in such a fashion as to send false information about identity and location. The United States has the cyber and electronic warfare capability to both jam and alter signals relating to both airliner transponders and to the Iranian air defenses. Israel presumably has the same ability,” Giraldi said.

Iran made the claim Wednesday that “enemy sabotage” cannot be ruled out in the downing of the plane.

Iranian Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi suggested the U.S. hacked missile defense systems to make it appear Flight 752 was an incoming missile.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also accused the U.S. of being responsible for the downing of the plane, saying that:

“The root of all sorrows goes back to America… this cannot be a reason for us not to look into all the root causes.”

He added that:

“One cannot believe that a passenger plane is struck near an international airport while flying in a [commercial] flight channel,”

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The 2020 Julian Assange Petition

Posted by EN-ABon 19 januari 202019 januari 2020in Algemeen

The 2020 Julian Assange Petition – please sign and share

Sign the petition here:http://chng.it/hjknzt2Bxc

There are many great petitions out there regarding Julian Assange – which I can all only support and urge You to sign as well –, stating for instance that he shall not be extradited to the United States. So why start another petition? Given the fact that Julians health is deteriorating rapidly, that the decision whether he will be extradited to the US or not will soon take place and that those who are in charge won’t listen to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer for even a moment – given these facts, an “army” of Individuals must rise, who will fight the immoral and inhuman crimes and wrongdoings, which Julian Assange has exposed, till the end, no matter what happens to Julian – we owe this to him.

We need to understand, that we are the reason why he is being tortured and why they want him gone. It is often mentioned, that they want to make an example of him. They use himto show us what we can expect, if we speak up, to make sure, that we will not become active. We need to understand what that means in reality, it means, that as long as we stay quiet or take no action he will be tortured, extradited or gone, because our silence shows them that their strategy is working. Even if we speak up for Julians freedom, it still shows them that their strategy is working, as long as our fight for his freedom isn’t in the first place an active action, to win the fight itself, to which he is dedicating his life. The day that they realize, that even if Julian is locked behind bars or gone, it will change nothing for them – because there is a whole “army of minds and hearts” who will bring his fight for truth to victory even if he is gone – that day he will be free. And that is why I decided to start The2020JulianAssangePetition, to show – also in numbers – that this “army” is there.

I myself don’t believe in petitions, but I do believe in individuals coming together fighting against crimes, lies and corruption for a future of truth, peace and Freedom, using a petition to state that fact. So please sign and share, lets send out the message, that: We will never ever be silenced! We will never stop fighting until Julian Assange is free and no matter what happens, we will bring this fight, to which he is dedicating his life, to victory.

________________________________________________________________

«Julian, stay strong. Stay strong, Julian, we fight for You. We won’t let them do it to You. We won’t let them do this to You. Stay strong. Remember we are here for You. Remember that. Stay strong, you will be free. God knows we will win. Stay strong Julian. Remember we are here. We are here for You. We won’t let them do this to You. Because Your freedom is our freedom!» (Reporter to Julian from outside the prison van 13. January 2020, source video below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stLalBA-yZo&feature=emb_logo
Sign the petition here: http://chng.it/hjknzt2Bxc

If Promoting Wealth Inequality & Social Breakdown Is Bad, The Fed Is Evil

Posted by EN-ABon 18 januari 2020in Promoting, Wealth

18-01-20 07:50:00,

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The Fed will destroy the nation by widening the wealth/income inequality that is breaking down the nation’s social order.

President Reagan was widely mocked in America when he declared the Soviet Union an evil empire, but this calling things by their real name had a profound impact in the Eastern Bloc. The mockery stemmed from the secularized American view that there was precious little moral difference between the USSR and the US, that the USSR was a legitimate “alternative system,” and that ramping up Cold war tensions was not just dangerous but useless, as the USSR was as permanent (or more so) than the US.

None of which turned out to be true. While all nation-states harbor multitudes of sins, the Soviet Empire was unique in its mass suppression of basic human rights, its economic failure to better the lives of its imprisoned populations while its military might soared, and the perverse union of a Kafkaesque bureaucracy and an Orwellian propaganda machine epitomized by the old Soviet-era joke that “we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

Fast-forward to today’s USA where soaring wealth and income inequality is making a social breakdown all but inevitable. Wages for the majority of households have gone nowhere for the past two decades, while the incomes of the top 5% have skyrocketed, with the majority of the gains flowing to the top 0.1%. (See charts below.)

History shows that fast-widening gaps between the super-wealthy / top 5% and the rest of the citizenry inevitably generate social disorder and breakdown. This dynamic is already painfully visible in rising homelessness, suicide rates, opioid addictions, burnout, intolerance, etc.

While there are many dynamics in play that exacerbate wealth / income inequality, the primary driver is the Federal Reserve’s near-infinite giveaways to the financial and corporate elites. If we examine why our economy has become a winner take most casino, we find the gaming tables are rigged to favor the few closest to the Fed’s money spigots: when JP Morgan gets in trouble by leveraging socially parasitic bets, the Fed steps in and saves their gambles by printing hundreds of billions of dollars in repos.

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Uncle Sam Just Used Its Financial Nuclear Weapon Again

Posted by EN-ABon 18 januari 2020in Financial, Uncle

18-01-20 03:15:00,

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In August of 1945, the United States became the only country to drop nuclear bombs on an enemy.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely destroyed in the blink of an eye. And the Japanese had no choice but to surrender to the Allies, finally ending World War II.

Ever since, world superpowers have been rapidly advancing weapons technology, constantly raising the bar for destructive power.

It won’t surprise you to find out that the most powerful and destructive weapon in the world, though, by far, is claimed by the United States.

But this weapon has nothing to do with America’s nuclear arsenal. It doesn’t even require bullets.

I’m talking about the US dollar.

The US is still the world’s dominant superpower, still the largest economy in the world. And the US dollar is still the world’s dominant reserve currency.

This means that the VAST MAJORITY of international trade and cross-border financial transactions take place in US dollars.

When Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company sells petroleum to the Chinese, that transaction takes place in US dollars.
Last year when Air France (a European airline) agreed to purchase 60 jets from Airbus (a European aircraft manufacturer), that contract was negotiated in US dollars– even though both parties are European!
When commodities traders buy and sell cotton futures on the national mercantile exchange… in PAKISTAN… those trades are settled in US dollars.
When the IMF stepped in to bail out Argentina back in 2018 with an emergency loan, those funds were paid in US dollars.
And right now as I write these words, the Chile-based agriculture business I founded several years is selling literally millions of pounds of blueberries to wholesale buyers in Europe and Asia. Those deals are also closed in US dollars.

You get the idea. The US dollar is at the center of global commerce. Commercial banks, central banks, governments, sovereign wealth funds, and businesses around the world all need US dollars if they expect to be able to do any business internationally.

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Iran – The EU-three Trigger Dispute Mechanism in Iran Nuclear Deal | New Eastern Outlook

Posted by EN-ABon 18 januari 2020in EU-three, Trigger

18-01-20 12:05:00,

Why, after so many assurances to the contrary, have the three European Iran’s Nuclear Deal Partner’s – Germany, France, the UK – decided to go after Iran, to follow the US dictate again?

The short answer is because the cowards. They have zero backbone to stand up against the US hegemony, because they are afraid to be sanctioned – as Trump indicated if they were to honor the” Nuclear Deal”. Iran is absolutely in their right to progressively increase uranium enrichment, especially since the US dropped out unilaterally, without any specific reasons, other than on Netanyahu’s orders – of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also called Iran’s Nuclear Deal.

Just a few days ago Ms. Angela Merkel met with President Putin in Moscow, and BOTH pledged in front of a huge press crowd that the Nuclear Deal must stay, must be maintained and validated.

And now, because of Trump’s Barbarian threats, trade threats on Europe – an increase of up to 25% import taxes on European cars – and wanting a new deal with Iran, whatever that means, they, the Europeans – the three Nuclear Deal partners, back down. Why not call Trump’s bluff? As China did. This Barbarian Kingpin is lashing around his deathbed with tariffs and sanctions, it is only a sign of weakness, a sign of slowly but surely disappearing in the – hopefully – bottomless abyss.

This threesome is a bunch of shameless and hopeless cowards. They have not realized yet that the west, starting with the US empire, is passé. It’s a sinking ship. It’s high time for Iran to orient herself towards the east. Iran is already a Middle-Eastern key hub for the Chinese Belt and Road initiative (BRI), or the New Silk road. Iran can do without Europe; and the US needs Europe more than vice-versa. But the ‘chickens’ haven’t noticed that yet.

On the behest of Washington, the Trump clown, they, Germany, France and the UK, want to start an official dispute process, bringing Iran back to where it was before the Nuclear Deal, and reinstating all the UN sanctions of before the signature of the deal in July 2015. And this despite the fact that Iran has adhered to their part of the deal by 100%,

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‘Biased & agenda-driven’: PM Modi’s party takes aim at Bezos-owned WaPo as Indian shopkeepers rise up against Amazon

Posted by EN-ABon 17 januari 2020in agenda-driven, Biased

17-01-20 03:40:00,

The Washington Post has taken heat from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, whose official lamented its coverage as local traders voiced outrage over perceived aggression by another Bezos venture, Amazon.

There’s “a lot of problems” in how the newspaper is reporting from India, Vijay Chauthaiwale, chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) foreign affairs department, told Reuters.

“The Washington Post’s editorial policy is highly biased and agenda driven,” the official explained, without highlighting any examples.

He previously complained about foreign coverage of Indian-controlled Kashmir which was recently stripped of its decades-long autonomy, alleging blatant bias against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The swipe at the newspaper nearly coincided with Bezos’ trip to India. The founder of Amazon – who also owns the Washington Post – has been trying to aggressively pivot to India’s burgeoning online retail market.

Also on rt.com
Amazon’s billion-dollar investment pledge isn’t doing India any favours – commerce minister

Amazon already employs over 60,000 staff in India and has pledged to invest $5.5 billion. The retail giant has also committed to building a giant “campus” in Hyderabad – a hi-tech hub – that would accommodate over 15,000 employees.

But Indians from all walks of life – from the elite to those making a living from small businesses – have been unappreciative of Amazon’s plans. The firm “is not doing a favor to India,” Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal asserted this week.

Meanwhile, dozens of small shop owners took to the streets of New Delhi during Bezos’ visit, claiming that Amazon was already hammering their business by lowering prices and working with large retailers.

Some likened Amazon’s strategy to that of the notorious East India Company which paved the way for the British conquest of India. They claimed that huge online companies like Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart have indulged in “predatory pricing,” describing Bezos as an “economic terrorist.”

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Putin’s Now Purged The West From The Kremlin

Posted by EN-ABon 17 januari 2020in Purged, Putins

17-01-20 10:16:00,

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ’n Guns blog,

It came as the biggest shock of the day on Wednesday. The Russian government resigned. The day before President Vladimir Putin gave his State of the Nation address and outlined a slate of constitutional changes.

That speech prompted an overhaul of Russia’s government.

Putin’s plan is to devolve some of the President’s overwhelming power to the legislature and the State Council, while beefing up the Constitutional Court’s ability to provide checks on legislation.

From TASS:

In Wednesday’s State of the Nation Address, Putin put forward a number of initiatives changing the framework of power structures at all levels, from municipal authorities to the president. The initiatives particularly stipulate that the powers of the legislative and judicial branches, including the Constitutional Court, will be expanded. The president also proposed to expand the role of the Russian State Council. Putin suggested giving the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) the right to approve the appointment of the country’s prime minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers.

The bigger shock was that in response to this Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev dissolved the current government willingly and resigned as Prime Minister.

Within hours Putin recommended Federal Tax Service chief, Mikhail Mishustin as Prime Minister. The State Duma approved Putin’s recommendation and Mishustin was sworn in by Putin all within a day.

While this came on suddenly it also shouldn’t be a surprise. These changes have been discussed for months leading up to Putin’s speech. And it’s been clear for the past few years that Putin has been engaged in the second phase of his long-term plan to first rebuild and then remake Russia during his time in office.

The first phase was rescuing Russia from economic, societal and demographic collapse. It was in serious danger of this when Putin took over from Boris Yeltsin.

It meant regaining control over strategic state resources, rebuilding Russia’s economy and defense, stabilizing its population, getting some semblance of political control within the Kremlin and bringing hope back to a country in desperate need of it.

Hostile analysts, both domestic and foreign, criticized Putin constantly for his tactics.

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Chemicals in tap water are causing thousands of cancer deaths across Europe – but the EU probably won’t do anything about it

Posted by EN-ABon 17 januari 2020in Chemicals, Water

17-01-20 09:11:00,

Peter Andrews is an Irish science journalist and writer, based in London. He has a background in the life sciences, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Genetics

Each year, more than 6,500 cases of bladder cancer, roughly five percent of all cases in Europe, are found to be attributable to exposure to trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water – and it’s all perfectly legal.

For a study of countries’ water quality, the EU28 became the EU26, as adequate data for Bulgaria and Romania could not be obtained. Nevertheless, the project covered 75% of the total EU population, and a reading of its findings is ominous.

What the hell are THMs?

THMs are a class of molecule that appear as a by-product of the disinfectants used to clean drinking water. When chlorine, the main chemical used to clean drinking water, comes into contact with organic matter, it breaks down into THMs. And despite being legal up to certain levels, long-term exposure to them has been consistently associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The EU has set that legal limit at 100 lg=L, but anything over 50 lg=L causes a 51 percent increase in the probability of bladder cancer, in men at least. This study was undertaken at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, in a city which has THM levels above the present regulatory maximum limit of 100 lg=L. Astonishingly, there is no provision for the lowering of this maximum in the latest European Council directive.

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How common is bladder cancer?

Bladder cancer is only the tenth most common form of cancer in the UK; 135,000 people in the EU were diagnosed with it in 2016. It is usually quite treatable with a simple surgical procedure as long as it is caught before spreading to other body parts. Some evidence suggests it affects men more than women (although this could be down to lifestyle differences, such as higher rates of smoking).

The countries with the highest percentages of bladder cancer cases attributable to THM exposure were Cyprus (23 percent),

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