Vincent van Gogh Green field 1888
Flynn
VERY SERIOUS STATEMENT AND THIS SHOULD BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY! SECURITY OF @realDonaldTrump IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. pic.twitter.com/0nQVWVOwMr
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) August 10, 2024
DeSantis
DeSantis demonstrates why the Tim Walz stolen valor story is devastating. Walz is a communist who created a Stasi to spy on people and forcefully inject them with experimental medicines. Media wanted to wrap him up in valor to distract from that. Oops!
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 10, 2024
Q
Q just released the real footage. It was fake all along. I’m sorry for counter signaling the movement pic.twitter.com/fv4pGLtrun
— E (@ElijahSchaffer) August 12, 2024
“..after this battle, Ukraine will fall,” as well as NATO, Europe, the US, and “all those supporting Ukraine.”
• Kursk Is ‘Decisive Battle’ – Chechen Commander (RT)
The fight in Russia’s Kursk Region is a “decisive battle” which will ultimately lead to Kiev’s collapse, Major-General Apty Alaudinov, the commander of the Akhmat Special Forces from Russia’s Chechen Republic, has claimed. In a video posted on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Alaudinov, who was appointed deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces in April 2024, said it is “inconceivable” that Russia could be defeated on the battlefield. The comments were made with regard to Ukraine’s incursion into the border region of Kursk, the largest assault on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict between the neighboring states in February 2022. “I see no reason for you to doubt, to think that we could even lose this battle,” he said, while making an appeal for more people to join the army.
“I urge all of you to make a decision in this battle. The decisive battle,” he said, adding: “Because after this battle, Ukraine will fall,” as well as NATO, Europe, the US, and “all those supporting Ukraine.” He noted that Americans, Poles, English, and French people have been seen fighting for Kiev. “You have no place… in our land, and we will do everything to keep you out,” he said, stressing that “Russia is more united than ever; we are a force that no one can stop.” Since the beginning of the incursion on Tuesday, the Ukrainian military has lost nearly 1,120 soldiers and 140 armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry stated, adding that the advance has been halted. Moscow called the raid a provocation and accused Kiev of targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in the region.
“Now is the chance to begin negotiations. If it comes to dividing Ukraine into three parts, then the situation and conditions that exist now will seem like a sweet dream.”
• Ex-Japanese Diplomat Warns Ukraine Of Apocalyptic Scenario (RT)
Former Japanese diplomat Kazuhiko Togo has warned that Kiev’s bargaining position will only deteriorate further, and that any deal it eventually strikes with Moscow will make Russian President Vladimir Putin’s current offer “seem like a sweet dream.” In an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency published on Saturday, Togo identified the US and UK’s refusal to negotiate with Russia as a pivotal decision that “could lead to Ukraine disintegrating into three parts.” “In the next three months, Russia could advance as far as it can, take as much as it can, and make sure that Ukraine never rises again, either under [potential US Presidents] Biden or Harris or under Trump. Then Ukraine could disintegrate into three parts: the eastern part [will go to Russia, the western part to western Europe, and in the middle there will be a small Ukraine with Kiev [as its capital].” Ever since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022, the US has maintained that it will bankroll Kiev’s military until Ukraine is in the best possible position to negotiate peace terms with Russia.
US officials have repeatedly insisted that any negotiations would be premature, even two years into the conflict. Ukraine agreed in principle to a Turkish-mediated peace deal in April 2022, which would have involved Kiev committing to neutrality and restricting its military in exchange for international security guarantees. However, the plan was torpedoed by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who convinced Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to withdraw from the talks, according to media reports, testimony from former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and an admission by David Arakhamia, who headed the Ukrainian delegation. Earlier this summer, Putin proposed new ceasefire terms, demanding that Kiev pull its forces from the formerly Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, and commit to military neutrality before peace talks can begin.
“Putin makes these peace proposals, but Biden and Zelensky say that there is nothing to discuss here, and that Ukraine’s goal is the 1991 borders,” Togo told RIA. “This is absurd, since Ukraine itself rejected the Istanbul agreements, under which it almost received this,” he added. “These words must be taken seriously,” Togo warned. “Now is the chance to begin negotiations. If it comes to dividing Ukraine into three parts, then the situation and conditions that exist now will seem like a sweet dream.” A veteran diplomat, Togo headed the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Soviet bureau in the late 1980s, and served as chief of mission at Japan’s embassy in Moscow in the mid-1990s. He was a key player in preparing for the 2001 Irkutsk summit between Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, and in preparations for the visit to Japan of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.
Russia destroying their own property again?
• Fire Breaks Out At Nuclear Plant After Ukrainian Attack – Governor (RT)
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has caught fire after being shelled by Ukrainian forces, the governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, announced on Sunday. The fire is under control, the official added. The fire broke out following a Ukrainian attack on the nearby city of Energodar on Sunday and affected the plant’s cooling systems, Balitsky said in a statement. The plant’s six reactors were placed in a state of “cold shutdown” as a precaution, the governor continued, adding that there is “no threat of a steam explosion or other consequences.” “Emergency workers are working at the scene of the fire, and the sources of ignition have begun being eliminated,” Balitsky said. According to the governor, radiation levels around the plant are normal and “there is no threat” to people nearby.
The Zaporozhye NPP was seized by Russian forces in 2022, four days into Moscow’s military operation. Six months later, the region of Zaporozhye voted to join the Russian Federation in a referendum. Throughout the first year of the conflict, Russian forces foiled repeated Ukrainian attempts to attack the facility – which sits on the Dnieper River – with landing craft and drones. Kamikaze drones were used in Sunday’s attack, the facility’s communications director, Evgeniya Yashina, said in a statement. According to Yashina, the attack marked the first time that Ukrainian forces were able to seriously damage the plant’s infrastructure. Responding to the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to perform “at least some imitation of work” and ensure the plant’s security.
Zakharova also condemned the shelling of the plant as a “terrorist” act. “The terrorists in Kiev, under the leadership of the collective West, destroyed their country, ruined the people of Ukraine, undermined global energy and food security, and now they have begun the nuclear terror of the continent,” she declared. The IAEA maintains an observer mission at the ZNPP and has condemned the repeated strikes against the plant. However, the UN agency refuses to attribute blame for these attacks, claiming that it does not have “indisputable evidence” of Kiev’s culpability. In a presentation to the UN General Assembly last month, Russia’s deputy representative to the organization, Dmitry Polyansky, displayed wreckage of a Ukrainian drone that hit the facility, accusing Kiev of posing “the only real threat to nuclear facilities in Ukraine today.”
The Zelensky regime failed to take over the Kursk nuclear power station in their incursion into Russia.
Now they have shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and set one of its cooling towers on fire.pic.twitter.com/miBZpfJeHj— David Kurten (@davidkurten) August 12, 2024
Will someone try to explain it to her?
• Kamala Harris Promises to Publish Her Policy Platform Next Week (Sp.)
US Vice President and Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris promised to publish her policy platform next week, which will focus on strengthening the economy and reducing prices. “Next week. And it will be focused on the economy, on what we need to do to bring down costs and strengthen the economy overall,” Harris told reporters of her press pool when asked about the timing of her platform’s publication. Republicans blame the Democratic administration for the rise in inflation and prices, declaring a failed economic policy. According to sociologists, the issue of reducing spending remains the main one for voters.
Incumbent US leader Joe Biden, amid concerns about his health and growing criticism, earlier decided not to seek reelection for a second term and supported his vice president Harris as his replacement. The US presidential election will take place on November 5. Former President Donald Trump has been officially nominated by the Republican Party for the post of head of state. Along with him, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has been approved as a vice-presidential candidate. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has become the vice presidential nominee in the Democratic team.
Polls, too, become ideology.
• ‘Dumb’ Kamala Harris Always Gives The ‘Exact Same Speech’ – Trump (RT)
Former US President Donald Trump has hammered Vice President Kamala Harris for refusing to give off-the-cuff interviews, accusing her of recycling the “exact same speech over and over again.” “Since becoming a presidential candidate she has refused to do a single interview. You know why? Because she’s dumb,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in Montana on Friday. “Or hold a single press conference. She won’t do it.” Harris has not held a single unscripted interview or press conference since announcing her campaign last month. Instead, she has embarked on a speaking tour focusing on a number of key swing states, partnering with popular musicians to draw crowds and reading similar remarks from a teleprompter in every location “Kamala gives the exact same speech over and over again,” Trump told the Montana crowd.
“Over and over. The exact same words. One of the people…put six of them up and every single word is the same. I don’t do that, I gotta give you a little bit of variety, right.” Conservative pundits have ripped into Harris for recycling her own speeches. A montage compiled by Fox News this week showed the Democrat telling crowds in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that “the path to the White House runs right through this state” before reading catchphrases like “I know Donald Trump’s type” and “are you ready to make your voices heard?” from a teleprompter in the same tone and cadence. “We don’t like to read teleprompters, right?” Trump told his supporters. “It’s not as much fun, it’s not as exciting.” While Trump does use a teleprompter for most of his rallies, he frequently goes off script and is known for his unprepared clashes with the media.
Here’s Kamala Harris giving the same speech, word for word, at all of her rallies.
I cannot wait for the debate when she can’t go by a teleprompter. pic.twitter.com/EnDOqqFSKF
— Arch Kennedy (@ArchKennedy) August 10, 2024
Harris, on the other hand, is often mocked by conservatives for delivering rambling answers when put on the spot. Trump and Harris have both agreed to an ABC News debate on September 10, during which neither candidate will have access to a teleprompter. Trump has also agreed to two additional debates with Fox News and NBC News, but Harris has yet to accept or reject these dates. According to an average of multiple polls compiled by RealClearPolitics, Harris is currently leading Trump nationwide by 0.5%. A New York Times/Siena poll published on Saturday showed Harris with a four-point lead over Trump in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, although when the poll’s oversampling of Democrats is taken into account, both candidates are locked in a statistical dead heat.
“VP Harris is quite literally running against herself by pointing out the ongoing cost of living crisis..”
• “She’s Literally Running Against Herself” (ZH)
Vice President Kamala Harris has been the biggest ‘Bidenomics’ cheerleader over the last 3.5 years. “That is called Bidenomics! Ha ha ha! That is called Bidenomics and we are very proud of Bidenomics!” VP Harris said one year ago. “Bidenomics is working,” VP Harris said at a separate event earlier in President Biden’s first term. Again and again and again. She has raised her leftist pom poms and cheered: “Bidenomics is working” …
New Trump ad paints Harris as face of ‘Bidenomics’ | The Hill
A new advertisement for former President Trump’s campaign tries to paint Vice President Harris as the face of “Bidenomics.”
The nearly minute-long ad, which Trump posted on his Truth Social account Friday, features… pic.twitter.com/cj2BtcetQR
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) July 27, 2024
You can hear the nervous chuckle when she claims over and over again, “Bidenomics is working.” But in reality, America’s working poor and middle class have been financially devastated by elevated inflation and high interest rates. If you talk with any blue-collar American and bring up supermarket prices, they instantly become enraged. The same goes for auto prices, shelter costs, power bills, insurance rates, pump prices, and on and on and on. The Federal Reserve’s latest monthly consumer credit report shows precisely why Americans are furious about Bidenomics—tens of millions of them have depleted savings and maxed out credit cards and are just a couple of steps away from financial ruin.
Crushing credit card interest rates.
Credit Card Interest Rate 1994-2024
Is the music about to stop for the consumer? So, back to VP Harris. The chuckle in her voice when she mentions Bidenomics possibly signifies that she, too, understands that out-of-control government spending on ‘green’ policies has been one of the main drivers of inflation. And on Friday evening, she addressed a campaign rally in Arizona by saying, “We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families … so that they have a chance not just to get by but to get ahead.”
KAMALA: "We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living."
She has been in office for 3.5 years — over which the average American family has lost an extra $26,000 paying for the increased cost of living. pic.twitter.com/NfQtLIpn4s
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 10, 2024
But hold up, wait a second. The whole point of Bidenomics, stated by the White House, was to “rebuild our economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down—and that strategy is working.” VP Harris is quite literally running against herself by pointing out the ongoing cost of living crisis. In other words, she’s admitting Bidenmoics has failed the working poor and middle class. What’s even more troubling, as Michael Shellenberger explained, is that VP Harris’ team has yet to unveil a policy-based agenda on the campaign’s website. Shellenberger explained why: “The reason her campaign is soulless is because the Democrats are out of ideas and the media doesn’t care.”
Let’s be blunt. The same leftist MSM corporate media that fueled misinformation and disinformation campaigns about Covid origins (remember the narrative: seafood market), Hunter Biden’s laptop, Russia-Trump collusion, and President Biden’s mental actuality are the same group of people in their ivory towers (colluding with big tech) who have spent the last several weeks waging an all-out info war against the American public, pushing them to support a candidate (VP Harris) who doesn’t even have a policy agenda listed on her campaign website.
“Pelosi’s comments opened the floodgates for scores of influential Democrats to demand Biden’s withdrawal..”
• Biden Admits He Was Pressured Out Of Race (RT)
US President Joe Biden has admitted that his fellow Democrats convinced him that he would “hurt them” by staying in the race for the White House, and identified former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a key figure who influenced his decision to quit. Biden suspended his reelection campaign in late July, almost a month after a televised debate with former President Donald Trump exposed his apparent cognitive decline. In the weeks between the debate and his withdrawal, Biden was urged by liberal pundits, Democratic lawmakers, and party donors to end his campaign, as polls showed the 81-year-old incumbent losing ground to Trump. “The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, it would have been down to the wire, and what happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and the Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden told CBS News on Sunday, in his first interview since ending his campaign.
“And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic, you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say – why did…and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” he added. Pelosi was the first prominent Democrat to publicly question Biden’s mental fitness after the debate. Speaking to MSNBC the following week, she declared that it would be “a legitimate question to say: ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’” Pelosi’s comments opened the floodgates for scores of influential Democrats to demand Biden’s withdrawal. Chief among these voices was Biden’s one-time boss, former President Barack Obama. According to the Washington Post, Obama “told people he is concerned that the polls are moving away from Biden, that former president Donald Trump’s electoral path is expanding and that donors are abandoning the president.”
Along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Pelosi relayed Obama’s message to Biden, the newspaper claimed. The former House Speaker denies leading any kind of effort to force Biden out. “He may think that my statement unleashed something…I don’t know, because I haven’t spoken to him since,” she told reporters earlier this week. Pelosi refused to say whether she had directly asked Biden to suspend his campaign, but said that she felt the president “did not have a campaign that was on the path to victory.” Trump has characterized Biden’s withdrawal as a “coup” by the Democratic Party. “They all dumped him, and they said, ‘Either you get out nice or we’re going to go after you.’ And that’s what happened. And he had no choice. There’s no question about it,” he told the New York Post last month.
“..now Pelosi is overcompensating with absurd suggestions, like adding Biden to Mount Rushmore..”
• Pelosi Questions Dropout Letter As Biden Fingers Her In Ouster (ZH)
In his first interview since he was very clearly ousted from the 2024 race, President Biden specifically mentioned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – telling CBS News Sunday Morning that Democrats in the House and Senate thought he would drag down the entire party’s chances of reelection. “A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” said Biden.
Biden admits he was forced out of the race because Democrats thought he'd "hurt them in their races" pic.twitter.com/UJjrHeXEVl
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 11, 2024
“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am — it’s hard for me to get out of my mouth,” he continued, adding that it was a combination of those factors, along with the priority of “maintaining this democracy,” that steered ‘his’ decision, the NY Post reports. Pelosi, meanwhile, is acting very strange about the whole thing – suggesting that Biden’s letter announcing his withdrawal from the race wasn’t written by him. (duh)
"It didn't sound like Joe Biden to me"
Pelosi admits others might be writing Biden's statements against his will: pic.twitter.com/IffHpDIkdI
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 11, 2024
As modernity.news reported last week, it was widely reported that Pelosi told Biden that he could either step down “the easy way” or be removed “the hard way.” Biden is apparently furious with her, as mentioned by interviewer Lesley Stahl in this clip.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1819735050851656046
She didn’t need to call anyone. (She sent emails.) It’s fairly obvious what happened – and now Pelosi is overcompensating with absurd suggestions, like adding Biden to Mount Rushmore.
Hard to turn back.
• America and Europe Need Mass Deportations Now (Skeet)
Name one advantage that mass immigration from third-world countries has brought to any Western nation, anywhere, at any time. I’ll wait. The riots that engulfed Britain this past week have again shone a spotlight on the issue that the authorities keep insisting is “beneath discussion.” And the issue isn’t racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, or any other scare word. The issue is Western ruling classes importing, against the expressed will of their citizenries, enormous numbers of immigrants who have absolutely no desire to assimilate into Western society or to respect Western values. Following their operating manuals, the political classes and their media eunuchs refer to the British riots, along with any opposition in the Western world to mass immigration, as “far-right.” But for the past 25 years, mass immigration has been THE top concern for a plurality of American voters.
Half of Americans currently view mass immigration as a “critical threat.” Half of Americans, including 42% of Democrats, favor mass deportations of illegals. It does beg the question: If half the country is “far-right,” then what does “moderate right” look like? The Green Party? The Trotskyists? Raul Castro? And when I ask what advantages mass numbers of third-world immigrants bring, I’m talking about tangible benefits, not theoretical paeans to “diversity.” Diversity in and of itself is not a benefit. When I speak of benefits, I’m talking about a raised GDP. Safer neighborhoods and lower crime rates. Higher test scores. Stable labor markets. Respected liberties. Independence from the state welfare apparatus. Successful assimilation. If mass immigration negatively affects all of these advantages, then sensible people will oppose it, irrespective of the argument that these migrants are simply “doing the jobs that Americans won’t do.”
If the cost of maintaining these advantages — necessities, really, for a free people — means that we suck it up and endure the tediousness of maintaining our own yards or paying more money for actual Americans to perform low-skilled labor, then so be it. Diversity is our strength? Whose strength? It doesn’t seem to be strengthening anybody, including the shortsighted “migrants” who, had they not been so immersed in their own chauvinistic, xenophobic, bigoted, and meritless pride, might experience a shred of humility and concede that maybe, just maybe, their unfortunate lot in life is the result of their own society’s cultural shortcomings rather than some ever omnipresent but never detectable “white supremacy.” Though much of illegal immigration to the United States originates from Central and South America, we still experience the same detrimental rot of immigration from more sinister quarters.
The British rioters, in particular, have been accused of targeting “Asian-owned businesses.” Asian, huh? Asia is a big place; care to narrow that down for us? You must mean Korea, right? No? The Philippines? Mongolia? Nepal? India? Are they from the same part of “Asia” as 18 of the 19 terrorists who carried out the September 11 attacks? To suburban white women whose sun rises and sets on the solitary issue of abortion, you would do well to consider what life would be like under a culture in which abortions are allowed and encouraged so long as the fetus is female. Where the Handmaid’s Tale cosplayers would be stoned to death for exposing too much skin. Where teenage girls aren’t encouraged to change their gender but are mandated to have clitorectomies. Where it doesn’t matter whether or not you Believe Her© because women who are raped are they themselves murdered for “dishonoring” the family.
And if you’re banking on your “men” to save you, don’t forget what happened at the École Polytechnique in Montreal. An Algerian-Canadian, Gamil Gharbi, walked into a classroom with a rifle and ordered the fifty men to leave and the nine women to stay. All fifty “men” sheepishly complied, after which Gharbi gunned down the women, killing six of them. Gharbi then calmly left the classroom and walked past all fifty “men,” none of whom did anything other than avoid eye contact. Gharbi spent nearly twenty minutes shooting more women, killing fourteen in total before killing himself. For the record, Gharbi had previously changed his legal name to Marc Lépine. Which name do you think the media used?
“Iran had purportedly hacked one of his campaign websites, but supposedly retrieved only “publicly available information.”
• Iran Rejects Evidence-Free Claims It Hacked Trump’s Presidential Campaign (Sp.)
The Islamic Republic has faced increasingly hostile rhetoric from the US deep state and Donald Trump’s president’s campaign over the past month, rejecting media claims about a supposed Iranian plot to assassinate him, and disregarding comments by Trump himself that Iran should be wiped “off the face of the Earth” if he was killed. Iran has responded to the Trump campaign’s latest hostile claims, rejecting allegations that it was responsible for the recent hacking of the campaign’s internal communications, including a 271-page dossier on Trump running mate JD Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities.” “We do not accord any credence to the news. The Iranian government has no intent or motive to interfere in the US presidential election,” Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations said in a statement. “The US presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere,” the mission said, emphasizing that Iran’s cyber capabilities are “defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces.”
The mission further recalled that Iran itself “has been a victim of various cyber offensive operations against the country’s infrastructures, public service centers and industries.” In a statement Saturday, the Trump campaign blamed Iran for the hack and possible leak to media of sensitive internal materials, but did not provide any evidence of Tehran’s involvement. “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” campaign spokesman Steve Cheung said. Cheung also warned media receiving the hacked documents not to publish the materials. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” he said. Later in the day, Trump took to social media to say that Microsoft had informed his campaign that Iran had purportedly hacked one of his campaign websites, but supposedly retrieved only “publicly available information.”
“Nevertheless, they shouldn’t be doing anything of this nature,” Trump said. “Iran and others will stop at nothing, because our Government is Weak and Ineffective, but it won’t be for long,” he added, without elaborating. US media began reporting on the receipt of the hacked campaign materials on July 22, about a week after Trump survived an assassination attempt, and was officially picked as the Republican nominee for president at the party’s convention in Milwaukee. The materials reportedly included an array of internal documents, including a report on JD Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities,” as well as a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents,” and “internal campaign discussions.”
The ‘Iranian hacking’ claims come in the wake of separate allegations by anonymous US intelligence sources in US media last month that Tehran was out to kill Trump. Those claims came just days after the attempt on his life and the spate of questions from the media, lawmakers and the public about the curious and unprofessional conduct of the Secret Service officers charged with protecting him. Instead of asking questions of his own about who in the US deep state may want him dead, Trump piled onto the Iran story. “If they do ‘assassinate President Trump’, which is always a possibility, I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth – If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered ‘gutless’ cowards!” Trump wrote in a social media post on July 25.
The Trump campaign’s hacking allegations and the former president’s response to them are not without a sense of irony, given that Trump himself spent nearly the entirety of his first term in office fending off false claims that Russia had hacked the 2016 election to help bring him to power. Similarly, while US officials, media and intelligence agencies regularly allege that foreign actors like Iran, Russia and China seek to meddle in or otherwise disrupt US elections, they haven’t been nearly as concerned about efforts by Washington’s allies, including Israel and Ukraine, to do the same thing, whether through the use of powerful lobbying groups in Washington, or attempts to dig up dirt on candidates hostile to their corrupt interests.
China and Rusia support Maduro.
• US Offering Maduro ‘Amnesty’ – WSJ (RT)
American officials have offered to drop “narco-terrorism” charges against Nicolas Maduro if the Venezuelan president transfers power to his political opponents, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Maduro defeated Western-backed opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia by 51.2% to 44.2% in a presidential election last month, securing himself a third term in office. Gonzalez’s supporters, however, claim that the vote was rigged, and the US officially recognized Gonzalez as Venezuela’s president-elect earlier this month. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Washington is now attempting to persuade Maduro to cede power to Gonzalez. In secret talks with confidants of Maduro, the White House has offered to pardon the Venezuelan president and his allies, who are currently wanted in the US on drug charges.
American officials are also trying to convince Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia – whose leftist governments are seen as sympathetic to Caracas – to convince Maduro to accept the deal, the newspaper reported. Meanwhile, Gonzalez’s allies have also offered security guarantees to Maduro if he were to step down. The US Justice Department unsealed indictments against Maduro and more than a dozen Venezuelan political and military leaders in 2020, accusing them of “narco-terrorism,” and implicating them in a plot to “flood the United States with cocaine.”
The State Department announced a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader, and rewards of up to $10 million for each of his co-defendants. The charges against Maduro came after previous attempts to dislodge him from power failed. Economic sanctions and veiled threats of military intervention from Washington were insufficient to break Maduro’s grip on power in 2018, while the US’ recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s ‘interim president’ in 2019 amounted to little more than a symbolic gesture, with Guaido currently living in exile in Miami. With the Venezuelan military and security forces still loyal to Maduro, the WSJ’s sources conceded that the amnesty deal is unlikely to succeed.
A similar deal was offered to Maduro during secret talks in Qatar last year, they said, adding that the Venezuelan leader refused to discuss any arrangement that would involve him leaving office. Maduro’s inauguration is scheduled for January. US officials involved in the secret talks told the WSJ that they hope to strike a deal before then, while the newspaper described the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House as a point of leverage that the US holds over Maduro. Whereas Trump imposed heavy sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry and backed Guaido, President Joe Biden temporarily lifted these penalties last year. However, the WSJ’s sources believe that “Maduro mistrusts Washington, no matter who inhabits the White House.” Maduro said at the beginning of this month that he is willing to restart sanctions-relief and prisoner-exchange talks with the US, on the condition that Washington “should stay out of Venezuela’s internal affairs.”
The International Boxing Association (IBA) is declared “Russia-linked” for not complying with ‘Full Gender Parity’. Very subtle.
• Olympics Chief Celebrates ‘Full Gender Parity’ At Paris Games (RT)
The outgoing head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hailed the “gender parity” of the Paris Games during the event’s closing ceremony on Sunday. His comments came after women’s boxing was embroiled in controversy at the Games due to questions over the eligibility of two competitors. In his farewell speech as the Olympic flame was being extinguished, Thomas Bach claimed the event in France was “the first Olympic Games delivered fully under our Olympic Agenda reforms: younger, more urban, more inclusive, more sustainable. The first ever Olympic Games with full gender parity.” The Games were “a celebration of the athletes and sport at its best” and “Seine-sational,” Bach added, in a reference to the river that flows through the French capital.
Two boxers – Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of the Chinese Taipei team – won gold medals in their respective weight categories at the Paris Games. Both were cleared to compete despite being disqualified last year from the World Championships organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing sex verification tests. Public backlash over their participation in Paris erupted after Italian boxer Angela Carini dropped out just seconds into her bout against Khelif, bursting into tears and stating that she had never been punched so hard. Olympic officials stood by their decision to qualify Khelif and Lin, with Bach stating during a press conference: “if somebody is presenting us with a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it.” He insisted that the IOC would not “[fall] prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interest.”
The verbal jab apparently targeted the IBA, which was dismissed as “Russia-linked” by defenders of the two boxers. It is headed by Russian Umar Kremlev and has gone against the tide in international sports by allowing Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete at its events. As well as the IOC, most international sports federations have imposed various bans on Russia and Belarus over the Ukraine conflict. No similar restrictions were applied to nations engaged in hostilities elsewhere in the world during the Olympic Games. On Saturday, Bach announced that he will not seek a new six-year term at the helm of the IOC, after his current one expires next year. He said the organization will be “best served with a change in leadership.”
‘Full Gender Parity’.
• UK Doctors Ordered To Ask Men If They’re Pregnant (RT)
British health authorities have instructed doctors performing X-ray, CT and MRI scans to ask men whether they are pregnant. The “inclusive pregnancy status guidelines for ionizing radiation” was developed by the Society of Radiographers (SoR). According to The Telegraph, the guidance came in response to an incident in which a transgender man had a CT scan while pregnant. The decision was justified by the fact that the radiation from X-ray, CT and MRI scans can be harmful to unborn babies. Doctors have therefore been told not to assume the gender identity of patients when performing all such procedures and inquiring of all people between the ages of 12 and 55 about pregnancy, including men, transgender, non-binary, and intersex patients. Under the new guidance, patients are asked to fill out a form with a list of questions, including their sex at birth and fertility status.
According to several X-ray specialists who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, the questions have already been deemed “invasive” by many patients. Several doctors reported that men have reacted especially angrily to the forms, storming out of appointments at the implied suggestion that their gender was not obvious. Another controversial aspect of the guidance is asking patients by which pronouns they would like to be addressed. Some parents of underage patients have reportedly been “furious” that their kids were asked their preferred names and pronouns – a question that confuses them – while one doctor revealed that a patient started to doubt their own gender identity after filling out the form. Some doctors and human rights campaigners said they considered the new guidelines “humiliating” to patients, and said they have already appealed to the NHS to drop the system and “return to common sense.”
“Given that it is impossible for anyone of the male sex to become pregnant, there is no need to ask male people if they might be pregnant… The proposed radiography guidelines muddy the water by including so-called intersex conditions,” Dr. Louise Irvine told the news outlet. “The SoR’s inclusion policy is among the worst examples of professional bodies losing their senses by prioritizing ideology ahead of biological fact. Putting healthcare staff and male patients through this humiliating farce… is both inappropriate and a shocking waste of time,” Fiona McAnena, the head of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, stated. It was not clear from the report how many UK medical institutions have adopted the new guidelines, but a number of hospitals in London and other cities were reported to have started using the new inquiry forms.
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