Australia Peoples treaty

Please enjoy this site with anonymity whilst having your input in your future as we unite and make the much needed changes to how Australia is governed.

Although some things you confront on this site may not be as you believe they are, the truth is undeniable and the direction put forward on this site is lawful , honest and a complete likelihood of success if the Australian public can accept the confrontational truth about the foundational flaws of our Commonwealth system and act in unity.

This site is equitable, fair and will ask you for no money. Nobody is being asked to give up anything or lose anything. This site is about gaining. Gaining a lawful and united future with security for our families and Nation.

All this site asks of you is that you confront the truth honestly and involve yourself in having your say in your own future.

Please share the site and the hashtag #PeoplesTreaty with family and friends to build support for THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE so we can put an end to the madness that governs our lives. Let the people decide for themselves how to act when confronted with truth, and a legitimate alternative.

The future of our families, and our National identity is our legacy to provide for them, as the legacy of our ANZAC’s and our loved one’s past is our duty to uphold.

Cheers,

Dylan ‘Didge’ Wilson.

https://peoplestreaty.online/

Permanent Ceasefire In Libya Agreed But Erdogan Doesn’t Want To Believe

On October 23, two rival factions of Libya signed a permanent ceasefire agreement in Geneva following five days of UN-hosted talks. They were held between the representatives of the Government of national accord (GNA) and the Libyan national army (LNA).

“The talks in Geneva today culminate in a historic achievement as Libyan teams reach a permanent ceasefire agreement across Libya”, the UN’s Libya mission said.

The agreement was reached as a result of the talks, which were held in the “5+5” format. The parties pledged to maintain a calm situation on the front line, avoid escalation of hostilities, continue the exchange of prisoners and resume oil production. In addition, they discussed the opening of roads and the resumption of regular air traffic between Tripoli and Benghazi.

“Mercenaries and foreign fighters must leave Libya within three months from today”. In addition, “joint police forces will patrol disputed areas,” the agreement says.

The ceasefire agreement was welcomed by the European Union and a number of states, such as the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Egypt.

https://southfront.org/permanent-ceasefire-in-libya-agreed-but-erdogan-doesnt-want-to-believe/

San Francisco Board Passes ‘CAREN Act’ to Punish ‘Entitled White Women’ Who Call 911 On Non-Whites

In just a few years, we’ve gone from “If you see something, say something” to “If you see something involving a person of marginalization keep your damn mouth shut or you’re going to prison.”

From the SF Chronicle:

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Caren Act Tuesday — a new law that makes it illegal for someone to call 911 with a false, racially charged complaint.

The name of the law — Caution Against Racially and Exploitative Non-Emergencies — is a play on the internet meme of “Karens,” which represent entitled white women complaining about people of color. The law, which must pass a second vote next week, would allow people to sue the 911 caller in civil court if they felt harassed or discriminated against by the action.

[…] “Rather than calling the police or law enforcement on your neighbor or someone who you think doesn’t look like they should be your neighbor, try talking to them and getting to know them. Build relationships to know your community,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, author of the ordinance.

The hope is that the legislation will spur people to use more discretion when calling 911 for a nonemergency. The law applies to those who feel they were harassed or embarrassed by a 911 caller, on the basis of race, sex, age, religion, disability, gender identity, weight or height.

More

https://www.dcclothesline.com/2020/10/23/san-francisco-board-passes-caren-act-to-punish-entitled-white-women-who-call-911-on-non-whites/

UK Signs Major Post-Brexit Trade Deal With Japan

Under terms of the deal, virtually all British exports to Japan will be free of tariffs

The trade deal will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021

Critics pointed out that the trade deal with Japan will increase U.K. GDP by only 0.07%.

The U.K. has formally signed its first post-Brexit trade deal – not with Europe, but rather with Asian economic powerhouse Japan.

U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss, who signed the pact with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo, called it a "ground-breaking” deal.

Under terms of the deal, virtually all British exports to Japan will be free of tariffs, while the U.K. will remove its own tariffs on Japanese auto imports by 2026.

“It used to be said that an independent U.K. would not be able to strike major trade deals or they would take years to conclude,” Truss said at the joint press announcement with Motegi. “But today we prove the naysayers wrong with this groundbreaking, British-shaped deal that was agreed to in record time.”

The trade deal will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

Motegi also said a deal between the U.K. and the EU was still necessary for Japanese businesses, especially automakers such as Nissan and Toyota (TM) which use parts from Europe in vehicles they manufacture in the U.K.

Motegi added he had “high hopes” that a deal would be struck between the U.K. and EU.

The new U.K.-Japan deal is very similar to Tokyo’s existing trade pact with the EU, except that it includes language on digital trade and lacks quotas for some agricultural exports.

Moreover, critics pointed out that the trade deal with Japan will increase U.K. GDP by only 0.07%. Some analysts said the pact should have been more comprehensive.

Minako Morita-Jaeger, international trade policy consultant and fellow of the U.K. Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, told BBC: "Given that Japanese [foreign direct investment] has been playing an important role in the U.K. economy and retaining its existing investment in post-Brexit is crucial, the U.K. government should have shown a strong commitment to Japanese investment by including a comprehensive investment chapter encompassing investment protection and dispute settlement."

Nonetheless, both the U.K. and Japan hope this deal will facilitate Britain’s eventual entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a regional trade zone that includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia and other Pacific Rim nations.

https://www.ibtimes.com/uk-signs-major-post-brexit-trade-deal-japan-3068243

Russiagate, The Sequel: Democrats Resurrect ‘Russia Bogeyman’ Ruse to Cover Joe and Hunter Biden’s Foreign Misconduct

If a U.S. political giant falls in Washington, D.C. but nobody is around to hear it, did Russia do it? Judging by the way the Democrats have been overplaying the anti-Russia card for the past four years, we already know the answer to that question.

Last week, the New York Post fired off a bombshell story that exposed emails allegedly belonging to U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The messages – discovered on a laptop that the younger Biden had reportedly dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019 – point to a level of corruption and nepotism that is shocking even by modern standards.

The NY Post article has new info. It has a copy of the email from Vadym Pozharskyi, adviser to the board of Burisma, thanking Hunter Biden for giving him the “opportunity to meet your father.” Joe Biden has denied knowledge of his son’s dealings with Burisma. pic.twitter.com/4KytWTcB0F

— Jorge Salcedo (@j_salcedo) October 14, 2020

To briefly summarize the revelations, via the Post exclusive: “Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing…Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin by threatening to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee during a December 2015 trip to Kiev.”

That’s an awful lot of potential political malfeasance in one paragraph, and even more so when it is remembered that Donald Trump was impeached by the Democrats for merely requesting that Kiev look into Joe Biden’s activities in Ukraine while serving in the Obama administration.

But as predictable as vodka flowing during Russian New Years, the usual social media suspects played brilliant defense for the Bidens, blocking not only U.S. government agencies from retweeting the Post story, but blocking the Post from doing so as well. While happy to accommodate the New York Times’ unsubstantiated story on Donald Trump’s tax status just a month earlier, suddenly the virtual house that Jack built was adamant about protecting its users from “hacked material.” This blithering nonsense had the unfortunate effect of placing the question of Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act, which grants social media immunity from legal action with regards to third-party postings on their platforms, front and center while the Post story languished.

Twitter censors @JudiciaryGOP. But not the Ayatollah or the Chinese Communist Party?

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 15, 2020

The Streisand Effect quickly kicked in for Republicans, however, as they screamed in one voice that they had found the elusive smoking gun, even as William Barr has gone missing in action. The Democrats, on the other hand, who enjoy almost total support from the media industrial complex, were content to see the news distorted or ignored altogether.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/23/russiagate-sequel-democrats-resurrect-russia-bogeyman-ruse-cover-joe-hunter-bidens-foreign-misconduct/

Did Iran Want to Get Caught Sending Threatening Emails to American Voters?

Intelligence analysts and private-sector sleuths who uncovered Iran’s involvement in the Proud Boys hoax emails are saying that “stupid mistakes” by Iran led to the quick solving of the mystery.

In fact, some analysts are openly wondering if Iran didn’t deliberately make it easy for us to follow the bread crumbs. Ordinarily, it takes months of technical analysis to follow the leads and determine guilt in such cyber attacks.

The “mistakes” were made in the video attached to several of the messages, according to several analysts connected to the investigation.

Reuters:

“Either they made a dumb mistake or wanted to get caught,” said a senior U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified. “We are not concerned about this activity being some kind of false flag due to other supporting evidence. This was Iran.”

Attribution to Iranian hackers does not necessarily mean a group is working at the behest of the government there. Iranian officials denied the U.S. allegations.

“These accusations are nothing more than another scenario to undermine voter confidence in the security of the U.S. election, and are absurd,” said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York.

Interesting that the Iranian spokesman used Democratic Party talking points in responding to the charges.

Nevertheless, the effort to ferret out Iranian involvement was a joint collaboration between government and private industry.

Within hours of the video being circulated this week, which purported to come from a American far-right group known as The Proud Boys, intelligence officials and major email platform providers, such as Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL.O Google and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O, began closely analyzing computer code that appeared in the hackers’ video.

While the emails, which demanded that voters change their party affiliation to the Republican Party and vote for President Donald Trump or “we will come after you,” appeared to come from an official-looking Proud Boys email address, the address was inauthentic, security analysts said. The Proud Boys denied they were behind the messages.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/10/23/did-iran-want-to-get-caught-sending-threatening-emails-to-american-voters-n1081339

Paradise for Human Victims of Corporate Persons

Any day now, Zambia will be the first African country to slip into a private debt default. It can only pay interest on the $3 billion in dollar-denominated bonds if it totally ignores the needs of the Zambian people. The country has suffered from the slowdown of the world economy, which impacted the sale of its copper for a part of this year (although copper prices and future prices have now begun to rise).

Cosmas Musumali, the general secretary of the Socialist Party of Zambia, says that the convulsions of indebtedness are not only due to the coronavirus recession but also to the wealthy bondholders and to the “cluelessness” of the government of President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front.

Zambia is one instance of what will be a cascade of defaults. The International Monetary Fund estimated in April 2020 that at least 39 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will be forced into extreme poverty. Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister of Ghana, said in early October that “The ability of central banks in the west to respond [to the pandemic] to an unimaginable extent and the limits of our ability to respond are quite jarring.”

Ofori-Atta’s comment should be taken very seriously. In its October 2020 “Fiscal Monitor Report,” the IMF said that governments around the world have thus far spent or cut taxes to the tune of $11.7 trillion or 12 percent of global GDP.

Through low interest rates, financial institutions are encouraging governments in Europe and in North America to borrow money to exit the coronavirus recession. The IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva regularly says that countries must “spend. Keep the receipts. But spend,” and that this expenditure should go towards infrastructure.

The World Bank’s Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart has said that even developing countries must take on new debt: “While the disease is raging, what else are you going to do? First you worry about fighting the war, then you figure out how to pay for it.” To people like Ofori-Atta and Musumali, this is strange advice.

Developing Country Debt

In November 2019, before the pandemic, Stephanie Blankenburg gave a presentation at the Debt Management Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). As the head of the Debt and Development Finance Branch of UNCTAD, Blankenburg keeps a keen eye on the escalation of debt and its social impact. “Developing country external debt,” she said, “surpasses combined export earnings since 2016.”

The World Bank’s “International Debt Statistics 2021” shows that at the end of 2019, the total external debt of the developing countries was over $8 trillion.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/10/22/paradise-for-human-victims-of-corporate-persons/

FedEx Readies A Plan To Help Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines

FedEx has readied a plan that will assist the government in the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine to consumers. The world’s largest shipping company has over 5,000 facilities, 80,000 vehicles, 670 aircraft, and half a million team members around the globe ready and some new technology in place to “help out.”

Richard Smith, the President of the Americas Region for FedEx Express and Executive VP of Global Support said that the company has been ready since the H1N1 outbreak nearly a decade ago. At that time, FedEx worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to distribute the vaccine for the H1N1 outbreak. After H1N1 was made into such a big deal, the company redoubled efforts to invest more in cold-chain infrastructure and “unique monitoring and intervention capabilities,” Smith explained.

FedEx intends to digitally track where these vaccines end up.

Announced in September, FedEx has begun using SenseAware ID, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy to transmit a location every few seconds. The devices will provide more precise location tracking, which will allow FedEx to intervene should something go awry during the shipment process. It will also give recipients a new level of information about their delivery.

Further, the SenseAware ID will be used with predictive analytics, which will give the shipping giant even more ability to move the potential vaccine quickly. –Fox Business

Already, companies such as Pfizer, are estimating1.3 billion doses could be delivered by 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This vaccine will be available shortly thanks to Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, a plan to fast track a vaccine to make it available in record time to the public. Many have theorized that this vaccine is already ready and that the elitists and ruling class are waiting until the right time to force it on everyone.

Chief medical authoritarian, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says that things would have to get “really, really bad” for him to advocate for a national lockdown. But this is the same guy who told the public not to wear masks, then changed his mind later. At this point, if we have learned anything from this scamdemic, it’s that politicians and the government cannot be trusted to look out for our best interests. We are on our own.

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/10/fedex-readies-a-plan-to-help-distribute-covid-19-vaccines.html

Russian Navy Warships Are Escorting Iranian Tanker En Route To Syria – Report

An Iranian-flagged oil tanker was escorted by two Russian Navy ships bound for Syria, the United States Naval Institute reported on October 21.

The Iranian tanker, Samah, entered Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal in mid-October. Soon after, the tanker turned off its automated identification system and started heading towards the Syrian coast.

A satellite image taken on October 15 showed that the tanker was escorted by two Russian Navy ships, the replenishment oiler Academic Pashin and the Udaloy-class destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov. The image was released by defense analyst H I Sutton.

By the morning of October 17, a tanker resembling Samah was seen anchored off the Baniyas oil terminal on the Syrian coast.

Last July, an Iranian tanker heading to Syria, Adrian Darya-1, was seized by U.K. Royal Marines in international waters off Gibraltar’s coast. Back then, Britain accused Iran of violating the EU’s sanctions on Syria.

The Russian Navy’s protection will prevent any harassment of Iranian vessels heading to Syria, which is suffering from crippling sanctions.

https://southfront.org/russian-navy-warships-are-escorting-iranian-tanker-en-route-to-syria-report/

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Counties Can't Reject Mail-In Ballots When Signatures Don't Match

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Friday that mail-in ballots cannot be rejected when their signatures don't match voters' signatures on file.

"[C]ounty boards of elections are prohibited from rejecting absentee or mail-in ballots based on signature comparison conducted by county election officials or employees, or as the result of third-party challenges based on signature analysis and comparisons," wrote Justice Debra Todd (D) in the decision.

While the decision was unanimous, there are notably five Democrats and two Republicans on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Mismatched signatures has been the leading cause of rejected mail-in ballots across the country, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, "and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh had sued the state over counties' use of signature matching, saying it created an unfair patchwork of policies."

That suit was dropped after the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, issued statewide guidance to counties that ballots should be counted if they have signatures, without any analysis or comparison.

The Trump campaign challenged that in federal court and lost. -Philadelphia Inquirer

So, it appears that anyone can send a ballot for anyone in Pennsylvania.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pennsylvania-supreme-court-rules-counties-cant-reject-mail-ballots-when-signatures-dont

Tesla Says China Forcing Unnecessary Recall Over Model S/X Suspensions, Recalls Nearly 30,000 Cars Anyway

Potential suspension issues with Tesla's Model S aren't new news. Many issues regarding Tesla suspensions were discussed on Twitter and Reddit under the guise of Tesla vehicles having "whompy wheels" for the last few years.

In fact, suspension issues are one of the oldest ongoing critiques involving Tesla's manufacturing (before Musk shattered Cybertruck windows live on stage, before Model 3s had dirt collect in their bumper and before Model Ys saw their roofs fly off). Legacy complaints involving suspension date back years, to Tesla's original run of Model S vehicles.

And now, what the NHTSA was too blind to see, the Chinese have clearly noticed. That's why Tesla appears to have been forced into a recall of 30,000 Model S and Model X vehicles made for the Chinese market over suspension issues.

Another major issue is whether the recall could prompt a similar recall - that would likely affect over 200,000 vehicles - in the U.S.

The announcement come on Friday by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. The government says it affected 29,193 vehicles, according to EV blog electrek:

Part of the imported Model S and Model X vehicles with a production date between September 17, 2013 and August 16, 2017 will be recalled, a total of 29,193 vehicles.

The issue surrounds "a weakness in the Model S and Model X suspension that can lead to a cracked linkage after an impact."

We used the term "forced" into the recall because it doesn't appear as though Tesla is "on board" with it. In fact, according to Bloomberg, Tesla has found "no defect with its Model S/Model X suspension and that China is basically forcing an unnecessary recall".

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/tesla-says-china-forcing-unnecessary-recall-over-model-sx-suspensions-recalls-nearly

How an Irrepressible Serbian Arms Dealer Found a Conduit to Saudi Arabia through Qatar

A Cypriot shell firm accused of funnelling bribes on behalf of a notorious Serbian weapons dealer deposited $1.7 million into a secretive trust fund set up for a prominent Saudi, leaked bank records show.

That fund’s Qatari parent company was subsequently fined by regulators for a string of regulatory offenses, and a criminal investigation has been launched that could lead to charges against its directors.

Though the purpose of the substantial payment is unknown, Saudi Arabia has become a major buyer of weapons from Serbia’s state-owned factories since the start of the Syrian civil war. Slobodan Tešić, the arms broker who allegedly controls the shell firm that made the transfer, has been a key benefactor of this upsurge in business.

Tešić had already spent nearly a decade under United Nations sanctions after he was caught selling weapons to former Liberian president and convicted war criminal Charles Taylor. Powerful Serbian politicians helped him get off the U.N. blacklist in 2013.

Less than five years later, in December 2017, the United States also sanctioned Tešić, saying he had paid “large bribes” to secure contracts for weapons deals. The U.S. also said that Tešić controls a Cyprus shell firm, Grawit Limited, that was used as a conduit to pay politicians. (He denies this.)

It has never been made public what exactly Tešić did to earn the new sanctions. But reporters from OCCRP and its Serbian member center KRIK have now found transaction records showing that several months before the U.S. ruling, in June 2017, Grawit sent $1.7 million to a Qatari trust. It was flagged to U.S. authorities as suspicious.

🔗

FinCEN

The FinCEN Files is a 16- month-long investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and more than 400 international journalists in 88 countries, including those from OCCRP and its network of member centers.

The investigation is based on more than 2,100 secret bank reports filed to the U.S. Treasury Department’s intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, other documents and dozens of interviews.

One of them is a spreadsheet detailing 77 suspicious transactions flagged to U.S. authorities that originated at Serbia’s AIK Banka, and passed through its correspondent institution, VTB Bank in Moscow. Most of the transactions are tied to Serbia-based arms dealers, including the $1.7 million payment from Grawit Limited. The only firm of that name at the time was based in Cyprus and was secretly controlled by Slobodan Tešić, according to U.S. authorities.

Show

That trust fund is part of a wealth management firm called Horizon Crescent Wealth, which is run by Swiss bankers but is based in the Gulf emirate of Qatar. In marketing itself to customers, it touted Qatar’s “light-touch approach” to money laundering regulations.

https://www.occrp.org/en/the-fincen-files/how-an-irrepressible-serbian-arms-dealer-found-a-conduit-to-saudi-arabia-through-qatar

FinCEN Files sparks fresh UK inquiry into laundering of dirty billions

The Treasury Committee says it will examine the effectiveness of anti-money laundering systems and sanctions, listing areas of concerns investigated by ICIJ.

Prompted by the FinCEN Files, a powerful U.K. parliamentary committee has launched a fresh anti-money laundering inquiry 19 months after it outlined findings that the nation’s response to billions of pounds in money-laundering was “fragmented.”

In light of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ recent investigation, the U.K. Treasury Committee says it will examine the effectiveness of both anti-money laundering systems and sanctions.

The Treasury Committee says the precise scale of the problem is uncertain, with estimates ranging from tens of billions of pounds to hundreds of billions of pounds.

The committee listed specific concerns as:

The work of the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision, or OPBAS

The impact of the “FinCEN papers”

Corporate liability for economic crime

The work of Companies House, the U.K.’s registrar of companies

Based on thousands of secret documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, the FinCEN Files investigation revealed how giants of Western banking enriched themselves while facilitating the movement of money for oligarchs, terrorists, drug traffickers and fraudsters.

The documents, secretly sent by banks to a unit of the United States Treasury Department called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, detail suspect money flows of more than $2 trillion between 1999 and 2017.

The global investigation spotlighted the behavior of some of Britain’s leading banks, including Standard Chartered, HSBC and Barclays. It also identified thousands of U.K. shell companies linked to suspicious transactions.

Reacting to the revelations in their immediate aftermath, the head of the U.K. Treasury Committee, Tory Member of Parliament Mel Stride, said he was “deeply troubled” by the revelations and had raised them with Britain’s tax collection agency known as HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Home Office.

“The Treasury Committee wants to know whether Ministers, HMRC and the FCA are on top of this,” said Stride, who served in the Theresa May government as the financial secretary to the treasury.

Stride said the new inquiry would “review what progress has been made in combating economic crime” since a previous inquiry held during the term of the last U.K. Parliament.

“The current Committee will now examine what progress supervisors, law enforcement and the Government has made in these areas,” Stride said in a statement.

“It’s important that the relevant bodies are held to account and scrutinised effectively to ensure that the UK is a clean place to do business and that consumers are protected from economic crime.”

The previous Treasury Committee inquiry’s report, published in March 2019, outlined the scale of the threat posed by money laundering and criticized the “fragmented approach” to it.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/fincen-files-sparks-fresh-uk-inquiry-into-laundering-of-dirty-billions/

Lithuania: Ex-Deputy Speaker of Parliament Charged after OCCRP Partner Investigations

Kestas Komskis, the former deputy speaker of the Lithuanian parliament has been charged with embezzlement and intentional bankruptcy. Lithuanian law enforcement investigated Komskis after extensive investigations by OCCRP’s Lithuanian member center Siena.lt.

Komskis, who is now a council member in his home town of Pagegiai, is suspected of helping engineer the intentional downfall of Agrolira, a construction company he ran with his son Algirdas. Father and son are suspected of driving the company to bankruptcy and wasting its assets, the Prosecutor General’s office confirmed to Siena.

In February, Siena launched an investigation of Agrolira’s bankruptcy. The probe revealed that Komskis’ business, untilrecently one of the biggest employers in Pagegiai, collapsed within months. A day before the first ruling on bankruptcy, the company registered three new shareholders. The three men are local workers from Pagegiai, all of whom worked for Agrolira or other businesses owned by Komskis. When Siena’s reporters met the new shareholders, the three claimed they never received any shares.

Back then, Komskis claimed the company went bankrupt due to a tragedy. In February 2019, a Lithuanian court ruled the company must pay nearly €100,000 (US$118,200) in compensation to the relatives of a car crash victim. A young man was killed in an accident caused by Agrolira’s drunken driver, who was driving from work with a company car. Two small children lost their father, and Agrolira was found responsible, along with the driver.

However, it was soon apparent that Komskis’ company failed to pay most of the compensation to the victims. The company’s road to bankruptcy began shortly after the court ruling. Within months, the family learned there was no money left to recover.

Simultaneously, Komskis began a new business venture that happened to specialize in construction works - just like Agrolira. The new company, Kalibrus, soon became the biggest construction contractor for the Pagegiai municipality, where Komskis is a council member and his brother runs the administration. Unlike Agrolira, the new company has no obligations to the family who lost their loved one.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13305-lithuania-ex-deputy-speaker-of-parliament-charged-after-occrp-partner-investigations

MSNBC's Joy Reid claims there's 'absolutely zero' evidence BLM has ever advocated violence. Videos and photos show otherwise.

Umm, she's wrong

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid claimed Thursday that there is "absolutely zero" evidence that Black Lives Matter has ever advocated violence.

"There is absolutely zero, none, zero evidence that Black Lives Matter has ever pushed for anything violent, pushed for anything violent to happen to police," Reid said Thursday night in response to comments made by President Trump during the presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Black Lives Matter is about one thing: Stop killing black people just because you pulled them over for parking or moving violation. Just stop killing black people," she said. "They have never advocated violence against police."

Reid has apparently been living under a rock for the last five months as anti-police protests have erupted across the country following George Floyd's death in late May in Minneapolis — a vast majority being connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. While many of those demonstrations remained generally peaceful, it has been well-documented, to say the least, by social media footage and local news reporting, that several have also turned violent.

That said, it is possible that Reid is choosing to ignore the actions of BLM protesters and instead suggesting that BLM leaders have not actually called for such violence to occur.

The problem is, even that claim is on very shaky ground.

During the debate, Trump had made reference to a 2015 event in St. Paul, Minnesota, in which BLM protesters chanted, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!" apparently in reference to police officers. A BLM leader who organized the protest later admitted the chant was real but attempted to explain that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

https://youtu.be/p213G6sgdXE

https://www.theblaze.com/news/joy-reid-zero-evidence-blm-violence

Australia no longer sending Navy to the Middle East, shifts focus to Asia-Pacific, China

A three-decades-long Australian naval presence in the Middle East will come to an abrupt end this year as the Federal Government grapples with an increasingly uncertain strategic environment closer to home.

Key points:

The shift was flagged in the Government's recent Defence Strategic Update

It declared the military would focus more on the Indo-Pacific and Australia's immediate region

China has engaged in a massive naval build-up and is asserting its control over the South China Sea

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has announced Australia will no longer send a Royal Australian Navy ship to the Middle East every year.

The last Australian Navy ship deployed to the region, HMAS Toowoomba, returned to Australia in June this year.

Australia will also withdraw from the United States-led naval coalition patrolling the Strait of Hormuz at the end of 2020.

That means around 30 years of Australian maritime operations in the Middle East — largely focussed on counter-terrorism and counter-piracy operations — will soon come to an end.

In a statement, Senator Reynolds said the Government's priorities had shifted.

"This year alone has seen [the] Navy respond to the bushfire and COVID-19 crises, a five-ship deployment throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific, a continued commitment to initiatives under the Pacific Step Up, and several highly successful activities with our regional partners," Minister Reynolds said.

"We now face an increasingly challenging strategic environment which is placing greater demand on ADF resources closer to home.

"As a result, the Australian Defence Force will reduce its naval presence in the Middle East to enable more resources to be deployed in our region."

The shift was flagged in the Government's recent Defence Strategic Update, which declared that deteriorating strategic circumstances would force the military to focus more sharply on the Indo-Pacific and Australia's immediate region.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-23/australia-will-stop-sending-navy-to-middle-east-to-shift-focus/12808118

Code Name ‘Project Hanson’: Insider Documents Reveal How Hunter Biden Associates Helped Chinese Military Contractor Acquire Michigan Dual-Use Manufacturer

In September 2015, the Obama-Biden administration approved the sale of a strategically sensitive Michigan manufacturer, Henniges Automotive, to a firm connected to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and a Chinese military contractor that was on an American watch list because of its close ties to the People’s Liberation Army. Hunter Biden’s equity fund, backed by the Communist Chinese government, and the Chinese contractor, Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), needed special approval for the deal from the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CIFIUS) because Henniges produced technology with potential military use.

AVIC entities have been sanctioned by the United States on five separate occasions since 1993 and the addition to the watch list–a major red flag—occurred less than a year-and-a-half before they co-purchased Henniges with Hunter Biden’s BHR. The fact that CFIUS approved the deal is alarming given that Henniges owns numerous facilities in the United States that are now controlled by a Chinese military front company.

Internal BHR documents show exactly how the Chinese military contractor was able to disguise its ownership via shell corporations and formed a joint-venture with the son of the vice president to facilitate the Chinese takeover of an American dual-use technology supplier. Additional documents suggest that Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed venture funneled money to an entity controlled by Vanessa Kerry, the daughter of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, just one month before CFIUS approved the takeover. At the time, Secretary Kerry played a lead role on the Obama-Biden CFIUS committee.

When news of the AVIC takeover of Michigan-based manufacturer Henniges Automotive hit the wire, Biden’s associates celebrated, calling the transaction a “proof of concept” for future Chinese acquisitions. “Congratulations!!!! Proof of concept again,” read the subject line of Devon Archer’s email on September 15, 2015. “This is great. Let’s get a letter out to Ambassador Baucus ASAP Archie (an apparent Archer nickname),” Bevan Cooney replied. Cooney is a former Biden associate who is now incarcerated for a separate venture—the tribal bond scheme—involving Biden’s business partners. [Should we explain that “Archie” is Devon Archer?] Cooney has provided investigative journalists Peter Schweizer and Matthew Tyrmand with access to his emails with written authorization.

Another internal BHR document contains a shocking revelation: Devon Archer facilitated Chinese “support” for an entity called Seed Global Health. Seed Global Health was co-founded and controlled by the daughter of Secretary John Kerry. According to BHR’s December 2015 internal document: “A special shout out to our director and shareholder, Devon Archer, for his involvement with the Seed Global Health non-profit foundation, which works to send medical staff and resources globally to countries in need. BHR will continue to support this and other worthy causes.”

It appears that BHR is referring to a fundraiser hosted by Devon Archer for Secretary Kerry’s daughter and her Seed Global Health organization that occurred on August 16, 2015—less than one month before Kerry’s State Department and the rest of the Obama-Biden CFIUS agencies approved Henniges takeover. The politically connected Seed Global Health has previously come under fire for receiving more than $9 million in State Department funds without bids or competition and, in 2018, an executive at Seed Global Health was charged by federal prosecutors for violating federal conflict of interest laws and illegal lobbying.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/23/code-name-project-hanson-insider-documents-reveal-how-hunter-biden-associates-helped-chinese-military-contractor-acquire-michigan-dual-use-manufacturer/

Xi Says War Must Be Fought To Deter Invaders, "Violence Met With Violence" Necessary

Chinese state media is widely circulating a new bellicose statement from President Xi Jinping made on a key Korean War anniversary for Beijing. The quote is going viral following the US presidential debate between Trump and Biden where both were asked how they would "stand up" to the China threat.

Xi is reported to have said "war must be fought to deter invasion, and violence must be met by violence" in what's possibly his most openly jingoistic statement targeting the US to date, though without specifically referencing the United States or any external enemy in particular. But given China fought against the US side in the Korean War, the implications are clear.

According to the Global Times the statement which is also meant to show support to the Chinese PLA military is going viral through social and other media.

"It's necessary to speak to invaders in the language they know: that is, a war must be fought to deter invasion, and violence must be met by violence," Xi said according to the full quote.

"Victory is needed to win peace and respect. China will never cower before threats, or be subdued by suppression," the Chinese president added.

The "patriotic" statement is now widely circulating in Chinese state publications, including the major People's Daily. It was issued on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of China entering the Korean War to fight American troops there.

It also comes a day after the US once again went on the offensive against Chinese state-linked media, adding six more of its media organizations operating in the US to the State Department's designated list of "foreign missions".

Beijing is said to be preparing its own 'retaliatory' action. The number of Chinese outlets which must register in the US as arms of a foreign government is now at 15, as the tit-for-tat with the Trump administration rages on.

More importantly, tensions are rising sharply surrounding Taiwan, with an increase of Chinese military exercises meant to pressure Taipei into accepting Chinese sovereignty over the island. Meanwhile Washington has pledged to transfer more weapons there, which China says is a severe violation of the 'One China' policy status quo.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/xi-says-war-must-be-fought-deter-invaders-violence-met-violence-necessary