Sean Penn: ‘I’m Now Thinking About Taking Up Arms Against Russia’

Actor Sean Penn may go to Ukraine to fight Russian forces.

The 61-year-old Oscar-winning celebrity has reportedly been working on a documentary for Vice about escalating tensions in the country since last year, and flew to Ukraine in February to get a firsthand look at the war.

After returning from the warzone in February, the Ukrainian embassy praised Penn’s effort to film the documentary in Kyiv.

“Sean Penn demonstrates the courage that many others, especially Western politicians lack. The more such people in our country now, true friends of Ukraine, who support the struggle for freedom, the sooner it will be possible to stop Russia’s treacherous attack,” the Ukrainian embassy told Newsweek in a translated statement.

Now the actor is contemplating whether to go back to Ukraine to “take up arms against Russia.”

“Look, my intention is to go back into Ukraine. But I’m not an idiot, I am not certain what I can offer,” Penn told Hollywood Authentic magazine in an interview published Saturday.

“If you’ve been in Ukraine [fighting] has to cross your mind,” he said. “And you kind of think what century is this? Because I was at the gas station in Brentwood the other day and I’m now thinking about taking up arms against Russia? What the fuck is going on?”

Penn continued: “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever.”

The left-wing Hollywood star, who played an Army sergeant in the 1998 Terrence Malick movie The Thin Red Line, said his curiosity about the effects of psychological warfare is also compelling him to fight Russian forces.

“If you have seen war, and I’ve seen a little bit of it, there’s a rite of passage while you are in or near it that has to do with some basic questions you ask yourself: how would I react? Could I keep enough oxygen in my brain to make clear judgments? Are you going to be damaged by being in a war, emotionally or psychologically?” he said.

“I think that there is a certain part of my own pursuits that is influenced by those questions that on some level demand answering.”

Penn also detailed accompanying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of the invasion.

While being with Zelensky “the day before the invasion” and “during the invasion, on day one,” he said, “it struck me that I was now looking at a guy who knew that he had to rise to the ultimate level of human courage and leadership. I think he found out that he was born to do that.”

When Penn returned from Kyiv n February he urged the U.S. to join Ukraine in its war against Russia, warning “our soul as America is lost” if we don’t join the fight.

Despite Hollywood and the Biden administration’s effort to galvanize public support for US intervention in the Russia, Ukrainian conflict, most Americans oppose U.S. involvement in the war. A recent poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows just 26 percent of Americans want the U.X. To play a major role in the war; 52 percent say a minor role; 20% say none at all.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/sean-penn-now-thinking-taking-arms-russia/

More countries agree to ruble payments for gas – Russian deputy PM

Moscow is awaiting decisions from other importers, Alexander Novak says

Several buyers of Russian natural gas have agreed to switch to payment in rubles, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

“We expect the decision [to switch to rubles] from other importers,” Novak added, in comments published in the ministry’s magazine, without disclosing the identities of the customers who have already switched.

The deputy PM noted that EU countries will likely not be able to completely replace Russian energy in the next 5-10 years. It is impossible to talk about guaranteeing Europe’s energy security without Russian resources, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that some Western countries are failing to pay on time for deliveries of Russian energy. Last month, Putin signed a decree that requires a new payment procedure for Russian gas starting on April 1, for buyers from hostile nations. The measure concerns countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia and have frozen its foreign reserves.

Russia has instructed buyers operating in countries designated as “unfriendly” to open two accounts in Russia’s Gazprombank, one in euros and one in rubles. Payment for gas would go to the euro account, after which the bank would exchange it into rubles. State-owned Gazprom will consider payments complete once the rubles arrive.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said this week the country is ready to pay for Russian gas in accordance with the proposed scheme. Szijjarto added that his country does not believe this violates the EU’s sanctions regime.

On Friday, Armenia’s economy minister, Vahan Kerobyan, told Russian media outlet RBC that Yerevan has made several payments for natural gas in rubles.

https://www.rt.com/business/553939-countries-ruble-payments-gas/

Man Who Discovered Ballot Trafficking Operation In Yuma County Handed Evidence To Attorney General Brnovich BEFORE 2020 General Election: “They Could Have Stopped This.”

Two men in Yuma County, Arizona, Gary Snyder and David Lara, busted a local ballot trafficking operation using undercover cameras during the 2020 Primary Election.

Lara and Snyder recorded and photographed ballot traffickers stuffing ballot boxes on the day of the August 4th, 2020, Primary Election.

The evidence was presented to the Arizona Attorney General, resulting in a guilty plea by Alma Yadira Juarez. Guillermina Fuentes, who serves on the San Luis School District Board, faces four felony charges. Juarez admitted to prosecutors that Fuentes, 65 gave her the ballots.

The Gateway Pundit reported on this case back in March.

This evidence was presented to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in August 2020, before the stolen 2020 election, but he chose to do nothing about it. “They could have stopped this,” said David.

David Lara, Gary Snyder, and whistleblowers from Yuma County will be featured in Dinesh D’Souza’s upcoming documentary, 2000 Mules. The movie is set to expose the nationwide ballot trafficking operation that stole the 2020 Presidential Election from Donald Trump.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to Lara for an exclusive interview on the ballot “cartel” that has stolen elections in Arizona for decades. David said he has been investigating the professional criminal organization for 22 years!

Mark Brnovich was handed this evidence before the 2020 General Election. Why did Mark Brnovich allow the election to be stolen?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/exclusive-man-discovered-ballot-trafficking-operation-yuma-county-handed-evidence-attorney-general-2020-general-election-stopped-audio/

CIA chief names biggest threat

The intelligence boss called Beijing the “greatest challenge,” while noting the “nuclear threat” posed by Russia

CIA Director William Burns has outlined the major threats facing the United States, pointing to China’s rise on the world stage and Russia’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine as the top challenges, while declaring that US intelligence has entered a “new era.”

Speaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Thursday in his first public speech ever as the agency's head, Burns argued that “an increasingly adversarial China and a pugnacious and revisionist Russia” have forced the Langley to “reimagine itself to compete successfully in this new age.”

“Xi Jinping’s China is our greatest challenge, in many ways the most profound test the CIA has ever faced,” Burns continued. “As an intelligence service, we have never had to deal with an adversary with more reach.”

It seeks to overtake us in literally every domain, from economic strength to military power, and from space to cyberspace.

Calling China a “silent partner” in Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine, the intelligence chief also warned that the ongoing military operation posed an “immediate threat,” suggesting that “desperation” on the part of President Vladimir Putin could trigger a nuclear exchange.

“None of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons,” he said.

However, Burns also noted that despite “rhetorical posturing” from Moscow – which placed its nuclear forces on a higher alert status soon after launching its attack on Ukraine in late February – US intelligence agencies “haven't seen a lot of practical evidence of the kind of deployments or military dispositions that would reinforce that concern.”

Since taking office, US President Joe Biden has repeatedly presented China as Washington’s top adversary, continuing a series of hostile policies carried over from the Trump administration. American warships have been regularly deployed to disputed waters in the South China Sea, and have made near-monthly transits of the Taiwan Strait despite vocal objections from officials in Beijing.

Russia has also figured prominently in rhetoric from the White House, which has only intensified in recent months. Biden has accused his Russian counterpart of war crimes and “genocide,” even appearing to demand regime change in a speech last month.

https://www.rt.com/news/553905-cia-china-russia-challenge/

Russian Long-Range Bombers Strike Ukraine For 1st Time In War

For the first time since the Feb.24 invasion, it's being widely reported that the Russian military has struck Ukrainian targets using long-range bombers. Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Friday that bombs were dropped by Tu-22M3 aircraft over positions in the port city of Mariupol.

"On April 14, two Russian strategic heavy bombers Tu-95/-160 have launched cruise missiles hitting the territory of Ukraine from Krasnodar Krai of Russian Federation airspace," he said. "Also for the first time from the start of the armed aggression bombs were dropped by a long-range bombers Tu-22M3. This airstrike took place, hitting Mariupol."

It's believed Russian forces are attempting to secure a corridor that stretches from Mariupol to the Crimean Peninsula as the war for the Donbas region heats up. Motuzyanyk described that there are still major street battles happening in and near Mariupol, which before the war had nearly 500,000 people.

The use of long-range bombers could signal the start of a new Russian strategy. The Kremlin has recently admitted it's suffered bigger than expected casualties, with many analysts pointing out that so far Russia has been restrained when it comes to major bombing raids on Ukrainian cities.

It also became evident early on that Russia's military appeared to be restraining its use of airpower, resulting in many instances of unprotected tank convoys being ambushed with often foreign-supplied anti-tank missiles, such as the Javelin.

The timing of this latest development is interesting also given the Thursday sinking of the Moskva cruiser off Odessa's coast, which was considered the Russian Navy's flagship in the Black Sea. It was reportedly hit by a pair of Neptune anti-ship missiles, and Ukraine is celebrating it as a major victory. This as Russia claimed the ship was destroyed by accidental fire which ignited munitions.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/russian-long-range-bombers-strike-ukraine-1st-time-war

Twitter Suspends LibsofTikTok For Featuring Liberals Talking About Themselves?

Twitter has continued its ever-widening censorship of social media this week with the suspension of the popular site, The @LibsofTikTok. What is interesting about this latest move is that it lacks even the pretense of neutrality. The liberal group Media Matters had targeted the site due to its use by Fox News and conservatives to run embarrassing stories for the left. So Twitter suspended a site that entirely features liberals talking about themselves.

Twitter suspended the site for “hateful conduct.” It warned the site “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

However, the site highlights liberals speaking about themselves and their values in their own voices. There is no explanation, which is common for the company. It simply suspended the site and told it to reform itself.

Formed in November 2020, the “Libs of Tik Tok” account has more than 613,000 followers on Twitter and has become a major feeder for conservative new sites. Clearly, if the site changes videos or misrepresents what was said, it can be sued for defamation or false light. However, the primary objections online is that the site fuels criticism of the left.

The success of the site drew the familiar crowd demanding the silencing of opposing voices or groups.

Notably, the liberal Media Matters stressed that the site had simply become too successful. Sophie Lawton described the reposting of liberal voices as “targeting teachers and schools with anti-LGBTQ smears.” She described that the site was growing in influence as the basis for stories by Fox, Joe Rogan, Meghan McCain and others. However, all she describes is the use of tapes of liberal subjects talking about themselves and objects that “the Libs of TikTok content has become ammunition for their arguments.”

That was apparently enough for Twitter, which defined reposting liberals to be a form of hateful conduct.

The action seems consistent with the chillingly anti-free speech agenda of Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. In an interview with Technology Review editor-in-chief Gideon Lichfield, he was asked how Twitter would balance its efforts to combat misinformation with wanting to “protect free speech as a core value” and to respect the First Amendment. Agrawal responded:

“Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation. The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.

One of the changes today that we see is speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard. The scarce commodity today is attention. There’s a lot of content out there. A lot of tweets out there, not all of it gets attention, some subset of it gets attention.”

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/04/15/twitter-suspends-libsoftiktok-for-featuring-liberals-talking-about-themselves/

Beijing Carries Out Military Drills Over Taiwan As US Lawmakers Meet With President Tsai

Update (1200ET): China's defense ministry has declared that this week's surprise visit by American lawmakers "seriously hurt political basis of China-US ties and led to escalation of Taiwan Strait tensions. The People’s Liberation Army 'will take all necessary measures to thwart any external interference in Taiwan affairs and Taiwan independence” scheme.'

• • *

Update (1000ET): Following their meeting with President Tsai and Beijing's display of intimidation, Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaking on behalf of the delegation, told Beijing that the US will start making China "account" for its bullying of Taiwan, and its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

That should do wonders for US-China relations.

• • *

The cadre of American lawmakers who are currently visiting Taiwan will have the opportunity to witness something that has become a common spectacle for the Taiwanese: CCP jets and bombers cruising overhead.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beijing-carries-out-military-drills-over-taiwan-us-lawmakers-meet-president-tsai

Harris, Emhoff to hold first known Passover seder at VP’s residence

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will be the first known second family to host a Passover seder at the vice president’s residence Friday after holding a virtual celebration last year.

Harris confirmed her holiday plans on Twitter, posting a traditional Passover greeting.

“Chag Sameach to all those celebrating Passover. Tonight, like families in the United States, Israel, and around the world, the @SecondGentleman and I will also host a Passover Seder at our residence,” the post read.

The news was first reported by CNN, citing a White House official who revealed that Jewish members of Harris and Emhoff’s staff will attend the gathering at the Naval Observatory in Washington along with their loved ones.

The vice president also reportedly informed Israeli President Isaac Herzog of her plans to host the seder during their Thursday call.

Emhoff became the first Jewish spouse of a US president or vice president when Harris was sworn in last year. The couple were married in 2014.

Just two months after the inauguration, the second gentleman led the first-ever virtual Passover seder at the Naval Observatory, saying at the time he hoped it would be the last virtual celebration.

In November of last year, the vice president’s family hung the first mezuzah on the front door of an executive residence in US history.

The celebration comes as Washington, DC, is hit with a wave of positive COVID-19 cases — with both Harris and President Biden potentially being exposed several times.

Multiple administration officials, including Harris’ communications director Jamal Simmons and Attorney General Merrick Garland, contracted the virus after attending the superspreader Gridiron dinner April 2.

As of Monday, both the president and vice president had tested negative for the virus.

Harris’ office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/15/harris-emhoff-to-hold-first-known-passover-seder-at-vps-residence/

Wuhan Collaborator Peter Daszak Demands Nearly $1 TRILLION To Fund ‘Pandemic Prevention’ Efforts.

The Chinese Communist’s Chosen One Is Making Demands of American Taxpayers Again.

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak – who used research grants administered by Anthony Fauci to collaborate with the Wuhan Institute of Virology – has demanded that President Joe Biden invest nearly $1 trillion into “pandemic prevention,” at cost to the American taxpayer.

Daszak, born and educated in the United Kingdom, is infamous for his work with Chinese Communist Party collaborators at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the subsequent cover-up of COVID-19’s origins.

Now, the disgraced scientist is demanding the U.S. taxpayer shoulder the burden of protecting against his work manipulating “killer” pathogens by funding new “protections” to the tune of nearly one trillion dollars over the coming years.

The sizable ask is made in a new opinion editorial published by Fortune magazine, and comes amidst ongoing scrutiny over Daszak’s research in conjunction with the Chinese lab suspected by many as being responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak.

Despite this, Daszak is doubling down with his calls for earmarking massive amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund his research purportedly aimed at “pandemic prevention.”

“The Biden administration clearly needs to invest much more money to prevent and prepare for another pandemic,” Daszak and his three co-authors explain in their April 11th op-ed, “Here’s how much the Biden administration should be investing in infrastructure to prevent another pandemic.”

Daszak proposes an initial investment worth over $500 billion, which would ultimately be increased to $829 billion with “annual investments to maintain capacity”:

Under reasonable assumptions, our analysis predicts maximum gains arise from an initial investment of $511 billion, followed by a steady increase of up to $829 billion and supported by annual investments to maintain capacity. The returns to these investments would range between $9-$15 in benefits per dollar invested. Altogether, our proposed investments in capacity could generate up to $10.4 trillion in expected avoided damages to society, as well as avoiding immeasurable human suffering.

“The U.S. should invest far more in building capacity to both prevent pandemics and be able to adapt to them should they occur. These additional resources would help to prevent the next pandemic by making it possible to detect novel outbreaks early on and use contact tracing to target and rush a response,” continue the authors, parroting talking points used by Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance prior to the onset of COVID-19.

Daszak’s demands for nearly one trillion dollars from American taxpayers also comes shortly after his critical role in quashing inquiries into COVID-19’s potential lab origins in his capacity as an investigator for the World Health Organization (WHO). New revelations from Vanity Fair suggest the Chinese Communist Party itself tapped him for the role.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/04/15/peter-daszak-calls-for-nearly-1-trillion/

Pope Francis: ‘We Are Racists, We Are Racists’

ROME, Italy — Pope Francis accused the West of racism Friday, insisting migrants are “subdivided” by skin color and country of origin.

“Refugees are subdivided,” the pontiff declared during a lengthy Good Friday interview on Italian television. “There’s first class, second class, skin color, [whether] they come from a developed country [or] one that is not developed.”

“We are racists, we are racists. And this is bad,” the pope stated.

As he has done on other occasions, Francis compared the current problem of migrants and refugees to the flight into Egypt of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus when King Herod was seeking to kill him.

“The problem of the refugees is a problem that Jesus suffered too, because he was a migrant and a refugee in Egypt when he was a child, to escape death,” he said. “How many of them are suffering to escape death!”

The pope went on to praise a painting of the flight into Egypt by an Italian artist who portrayed Saint Joseph as a clean-shaven, modern-day Syrian fleeing the war with his child.

“An anguished face that these people have, just like Jesus, forced to flee,” Francis said. “He sent it to me and I made holy cards from it.”

On Friday evening, Pope Francis will preside over the Stations of the Cross in Rome’s Colosseum. For the fourteenth and final station, the Vatican invited a family of migrants to write and present a reflection for the placing of Christ’s lifeless body in the tomb after his crucifixion.

“Now we are here. We have died to our past. We wanted to live in our own land but war prevented that,” the text reads. “It is difficult for a family to have to choose between its dreams and its freedom, between its hopes and survival.”

“We are here after travels in which we witnessed the death of women and children, friends, brothers and sisters. We are here, the survivors. We are perceived as a burden,” it continues.

“At home, we were important, but here we are numbers, categories and statistics,” it declares. “And yet we are much more than just migrants. We are persons.”

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2022/04/15/pope-francis-we-are-racists-we-are-racists/

Teach Kids About Porn in School, Demand Teachers at Union Conference

Teachers at a union conference demanded that kids be taught about porn in schools in order to help them “understand” and “cope” with the material.

A teachers’ union in Britain has heard demands from its members that schools be allowed to teach children about pornography, which they argue would allow kids to better “understand” and “cope” with the material when they come into contact with it.

The demands were aired at a meeting of the National Education Union (NEU), which has previously organised training that instructed teachers not to use gendered language with students.

According to a report by The Telegraph, teachers made the demand for kids to be taught about porn at the union’s annual conference at Bournemouth, with some within the organisation appearings to believe that teachers instructing kids on porn will allow them to more critically engage with the explicit content, which the union claims is filled with “racism” and “sexist tropes”.

What’s more, the publication also reported teachers saying that the demand should be met in order to prevent children from sharing explicit images of themselves.

“The majority of pornography projects a distorted view of sex and sexual relationships and it should be a matter of concern that mainstream sites regularly feature violent acts against women and girls, incest and racism,” said Dr Mary Bousted — who serves as the union’s Joint General Secretary — on the topic.

“As a union we are supporting schools to address sexual harassment and to explore how teachers and all staff can take a whole school approach to gender equality and sexist, homophobic and transphobic stereotypes,” Bousted continued. “As a society, we must not underestimate the impact viewing pornography has on young people.”

“Relationships and Sex Education as a subject must be used to explore with young people what healthy relationships look like,” she also said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/04/15/teach-kids-about-porn-in-school-demand-teachers-at-union-conference/

Macron Vows To Tackle Social Media Giants, Calls for End of Internet Anonymity

French President Emmanuel Macron stated he is open to “dismantling” social media giants and proposed to end anonymity online as he campaigns in the second round of the French presidential election.

President Macron stated this week that he was open to the idea of dismantling social media giants, claiming they can have a negative effect on society as a whole and that some may be deemed to be monopolies.

“First of all, there is the subject of social networks. Many are now Americans. We must not hesitate to consider the dismantling of those who are in a monopoly situation and regulate,” President Macron said, broadcaster BFMTV reports.

“On social networks, we can kill reputations, spread fake news, push people to suicide,” Macron said and added, “When you read what Mark Zuckerberg thinks for example, or even Elon Musk, who has become a shareholder of Twitter and is a libertarian, you realize that they also have a vision of the world. But the society that emerges in this way is not always democratic.”

On Thursday Mr Musk, who refused to take a seat on the board of Twitter, offered to buy the entire company at a valuation of $54.20 a share, 18 per cent above the closing price of the stock from the previous day.

President Macron went on to note his opposition to the idea of anonymity online as well, saying: “In a democratic society, there should be no anonymity. You can’t walk around the street hooded. On the internet, people allow themselves, because they are hooded behind a nickname, to say the worst, objectionable statements.”

Macron’s current Prime Minister Jean Castex has also spoken out about his opposition to anonymity online, stating in 2020 that anonymity distorts the political debate.

“You can call someone all kinds of names, accuse them of all kinds of vices, by hiding behind pseudonyms. In these conditions, social networks are the Vichy regime: nobody knows who it is!” Castex said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/04/15/macron-vows-to-tackle-social-media-giants-calls-for-end-of-internet-anonymity/

Canadian Health Ministry Shares Foot Fetish Porn Link Instead of COVID Data

A Canadian health ministry has apologised for sharing a link to a foot fetish porn video instead of government COVID statistics.

The health ministry in Québec has been left red-faced and forced to apologise after a link was shared on official government social media directing netizens to a foot fetish porn video instead of to the government body’s daily tally of local COVID cases.

A spokesman for the ministry has since confirmed that an investigation is now underway into the sordid gaffe.

According to a report by Le Journal de Québec, the now-deleted social media post linked to a video on PornHub, a site that has previously found itself under heavy criticism for allegedly allowing child pornography and footage of rape to be disseminated on its platform.

The publication went on to claim that it took around 30 minutes for the gaffe to be rectified, with the government department subsequently apologising for the error.

“Due to a situation beyond our control, a link with inappropriate content was posted on our Twitter account,” the online apology read. “We are looking for the causes. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

While the foot fetish porn link controversy has no doubt left a few Canadian officials embarrassed, they will at the very least be able to take solace in the fact that things could have been worse.

For instance, they can be grateful that their adult content gaffe was nowhere near as bad as one which occurred in the Italian Senate last year, which saw an animated porn video broadcast live — both online and reportedly on television — during a meeting on government transparency.

Held by the left-wing 5-Star Movement, the publicly broadcasted meeting — which was attended by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist — was interrupted mid-way through by “anime-style” fan-made pornographic footage of a popular video game character.

According to a Daily Mail report on the incident, the footage continued to be broadcast for around 20 seconds before being shut down.

An organiser for the event claimed that someone had “snuck in” to an online video call for the event, with the Italian wire service ANSA reporting one Italian Senator as saying that she had reported the incident to the country’s Postal Police, and that she hoped those responsible for the high-profile prank would be punished.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/04/15/canadian-health-ministry-shares-foot-fetish-porn-link-instead-of-covid-data/

“Democratization” and Anti-Semitism in Ukraine: When Neo-Nazi Symbols Become “The New Normal”

Under the new government, Yarosh is leader of the Neo-Nazi Right Sector delegation to the Ukraine Parliament. His close friend and political partner Andriy Parubiy co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda) was appointed by the new government to the position of Secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU), a key position which oversees the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement, National Security and Intelligence. Right Sektor leaders Yarosh was appointed to the number 2 position at RNBOU. Have the Neo-Nazis cornered Ukraine’s National Security agenda?

Welcome to “The New Normal”

In the following video filmed in the Ukrainian Parliament and posted in late December 2013, we can clearly see on the pillars two flags which are listed in the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos”: the White power flag and the Confederate flag.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/democratization-and-anti-semitism-in-ukraine-neo-nazi-symbols-become-the-new-normal/5371919

Trump ally Devin Nunes loses CNN defamation appeal

NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court said Devin Nunes, the former California congressman and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, cannot revive his defamation lawsuit against CNN over reports he was involved in efforts to uncover damaging Ukraine-related information about Joe Biden.

In a 2-1 decision on Thursday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Nunes failed to seek a correction fast enough, or show he deserved "special damages" for economic loss.

Circuit Judge William Nardini said the trial judge "did not err" in finding that Nunes did not comply with applicable California law governing retractions, and thus his $435 million lawsuit should be dismissed with prejudice.

CNN is a unit of Warner Bros Discovery Inc .

A lawyer for Nunes did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CNN's lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Nunes sued over a Nov. 22, 2019 article that said Lev Parnas, a then-indicted associate of former Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, was willing to testify before Congress that Nunes met in 2018 with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss "digging up dirt" on Biden, a Democrat and now U.S. president.

The former Republican congressman also objected to a broadcast of CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," where the reporter and host Chris Cuomo discussed his alleged role in "looking for dirt" on Biden and his son Hunter.

Nunes denied the accusations, said his reputation was damaged, and branded CNN "the mother of fake news."

Circuit Judge Steven Menashi dissented from Thursday's decision, saying the laws of New York, where the reporter and Cuomo worked, governed Nunes' claims.

Trump appointed all three judges on the appeals court panel.

Nunes has sued several news organizations in recent years. read more

On April 1, another federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of Nunes' $250 million lawsuit claiming the Washington Post defamed him by implying he lied to Trump about who attended a Feb. 2020 intelligence briefing concerning Russia.

Nunes left Congress in December to become chief executive of the social media venture Trump Media & Technology Group.

Parnas is awaiting sentencing after being convicted in October on campaign finance charges.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-ally-devin-nunes-loses-cnn-defamation-appeal-2022-04-14/?utm_source=reddit.com

Dutch Journalist: ‘We are here, in Donbass, to awaken Westerners deluded by propaganda’

There are only a handful of Western journalists on the ground in Donbass, while the Western mainstream press is rubber-stamping fake news about the Ukrainian crisis using the same templates it previously exploited in Iraq, Libya and Syria, says Dutch independent journalist Sonja van den Ende.

Sonja van den Ende, an independent journalist from Rotterdam, Netherlands, went to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as an embedded reporter with the Russian army to see how the special operation is unfolding with her own eyes.

The sound of shelling and explosion does not frighten her: she’s gotten used to it. Seven years ago, van den Ende worked in Syria, months before the Russians stepped in at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and changed the tide. The parallels between the Western mainstream press’ coverage of the Syrian and the Ukrainian conflicts are striking, according to her.

“They lie continuously about everything just to implement their own agenda,” van den Ende. “Like in Syria, President Assad was ‘the murderer’ and now President Putin is ‘the butcher.’ They had used this script for many years in Iraq, Venezuela and [other] countries which don’t comply with their agenda; they need a bad “guy”. But they (media) are not even there on the ground, they can’t judge. Only a handful of journalists from the West are here: Graham Philips, Patrick Lancaster, Anne-Laure Bonnel and me.”

However, this is not the only parallel, according to the Dutch journalist. She has drawn attention to Kiev’s fake reports and “false flag” operations including the Snake Island hoax, hype over Russia’s alleged “attack” on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the now-debunked story of Russia’s “strike” on a Mariupol hospital, and the most recent Bucha provocation, to name but a few. Van den Ende says that it resembles nothing so much as jihadists’ false flags and the White Helmet’s staged “gas attacks”. She specifically recalls the 4 April 2017 chemical provocation in Khan Sheikhun, Idlib, which was debunked by investigative reporters including Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh.

“The same happened in Bucha,” says the Dutch journalist. “Many witnesses are saying that the Russian army left on 30 March. Even the Ukrainian military who came in on 1 April didn’t report about corpses on the streets. This happened on 3 April, according to the Western media. Also, evidence is saying that the bodies had white armbands, the sign of the Russian army, the soldiers wear them. So the soldiers are killing the Russian Ukrainians? No way.”

Ukrainian Neo-Nazism is No Myth

Van den Ende talked to many Ukrainian civilians while travelling across Donbass. According to her, nearly everyone condemned the Kiev government for prohibiting the Russian language and depriving them of many cultural and domestic human rights.

“The majority of the people whom I spoke with were very happy that the [Russian special] operation has started,” the Dutch journalist says. “Of course, nobody wants violence and war, but they have been suffering already eight years from the war, carnage and destruction by the Ukrainian forces. The worst were the Nazi battalions, who were fighting along with the regular army.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/dutch-journalist-we-here-donbass-awaken-westerners-deluded-propaganda/5777485

Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Launching Helicopter Strikes inside Russia

Russia says the strike hit the village of Klimovo, which is 6 miles from the Ukrainian border

On Thursday, Moscow accused Kyiv of sending helicopters over the border to attack a Russian village and reported that seven people were injured in the strikes. The Investigative Committee of Russia said the helicopters attacked the village of Klimovo, which is just six miles from the Ukrainian border.

“Using two military helicopters carrying heavy weaponry, Ukrainian armed forces illegally entered Russian air space,” the committee said in a statement. “Flying low, acting deliberately, they carried out at least six airstrikes on residential buildings in the settlement of Klimovo.”

At this point, Ukraine hasn’t confirmed that it carried out the strikes and had rejected Russian accusations about a cross-border attack earlier this month. On April 1, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod, Russia.

Ukrainian officials initially denied the Belgorod attack, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chose not to comment on the incident when asked about it in a Fox News interview. “I’m sorry. I do not discuss any of my orders as commander in chief, the leader of this state, and there are things which I only share with the military armed forces of Ukraine and when they talk with me,” he said.

The US has been sharing intelligence with Kyiv to help the Ukrainians target Russian forces inside Ukrainian territory. According to The Wall Street Journal, the US recently expanded its intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but won’t provide information that could be used to hit targets inside Russia.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/14/moscow-accuses-ukraine-of-launching-helicopter-strikes-inside-russia/

Russia Formally Warns US to Stop Arming Ukraine

Russia sent a formal diplomatic note to the US that was obtained by The Washington Post

Russia sent a formal diplomatic note to the US this week calling on Washington and NATO to stop arming Ukraine. The note, which was obtained by The Washington Post, said the Western campaign to pour weapons into Ukraine was “adding fuel” to the conflict and could lead to “unpredictable consequences.”

The diplomatic note was sent Tuesday, when news broke of a new massive US military aid package for Ukraine. President Biden announced the new aid on Wednesday, which is worth $800 million and includes howitzers for the first time. The package also includes helicopters, armed Switchblade drones, coastal defense drones, armored vehicles, radar systems, and thousands of Stinger and Javelin missiles.

The Russian note was sent to the State Department by the Russian Embassy in Washington. It said the US and its NATO allies were ignoring “rigorous principles” on the transfer of weapons into the conflict zone and said the Western powers are oblivious to “the threat of high-precision weapons falling into the hands of radical nationalists, extremists and bandit forces in Ukraine.”

The Russians accused NATO of pressuring Ukraine to “abandon” peace talks with Moscow “in order to continue the bloodshed.” The US and most of its NATO allies have shown little interest in supporting the negotiations between the warring sides. The Western powers are signaling that they don’t want Kyiv to make any concessions to Moscow.

The Post reported last week that for some NATO members “it’s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe.”

The formal Russian protest of the US arming Ukraine could be a precursor to Russia launching airstrikes on weapons shipments in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that Moscow would view US or NATO vehicles transporting arms inside Ukraine as “legitimate military targets.”

It’s not clear if any US or NATO vehicles have actually brought weapons into Ukraine since Russia invaded. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has said that Ukrainian troops bring the weapons into Ukraine after the US brings them to Eastern Europe. So far, there haven’t been reports of Russia targeting weapons shipments as they enter Ukraine, but Moscow has hit weapons depots. Earlier this week, Russia said it destroyed an S-300 missile defense system in Ukraine that was provided by a European country.

Russia’s protest highlights the danger of the US-led campaign to pour weapons into Ukraine and the risk of provoking Moscow. On top of arming the Ukrainians, the US is also providing them with intelligence for attacks on Russian forces. The huge amount of support raises questions about at what point Russia would consider the US a co-belligerent in the war.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/14/russia-formally-warns-us-to-stop-arming-ukraine/

Why have we been convinced to call the day Yeshua was nailed to the cross as good Friday?

WTF is good about that ?