British media ‘whitewashing’ Ukrainian neo-Nazis, UK journalist tells RT

The editor of newspaper the Morning Star says he saw on the ground how rampant the far-right is in western Ukraine

Major British media outlets are providing one-sided coverage of the Ukrainian conflict and are making efforts to exonerate neo-Nazis in the country, Steve Sweeney, an international editor at British newspaper the Morning Star, told RT.

Sweeney, who recently returned from the Ukrainian city of Lvov near the border with Poland, said he had to travel there himself because “the British media reporting [on Ukraine] is now incredibly restricted.”

“You have the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 all really producing identical reports from Kiev and Lvov that don’t deviate at all from the government line, from the NATO line on what’s happening” in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, he said.

“A great effort is being made to really whitewash or rehabilitate the Azov [military battalion] as either having no influence in Ukraine or being just simply misunderstood nationalists,” the journalist pointed out.

https://www.rt.com/news/556276-azov-ukraine-uk-nazi/

Showdown on the Second Amendment: Harris Calls for Ban on “Assault Weapons”

We recently discussed how President Joe Biden has not only repeated false statements about the history of the Second Amendment, but has failed to acknowledge the limits imposed by the Second Amendment in calling for a crackdown on “assault weapons.” He recently has not, however, called specifically for a ban, which would run into serious constitutional challenges. Now Vice President Kamala Harris has taken that step forward in demanding a ban on “assault weapons.” (Notably, this week, Republican house member also came out in favor of a ban on “assault weapons.”)

Politicians often use the term “assault weapon” to refer to the AR-15 and similar models of firearms. These civilian models are not automatic weapons (which are illegal for sale for most citizens). As discussed earlier, the AR-15 is the most popular gun in America and the number is continuing to rise rapidly, with one AR-15 purchased in every five new firearms sales. These AR-15s clearly are not being purchased for armored deer. Many are purchased for personal and home protection; it also is popular for target shooting and hunting. Many gun owners like the AR-15 because it is modular; depending on the model, you can swap out barrels, bolts and high-capacity magazines, or add a variety of accessories. While it does more damage than a typical handgun, it is not the most powerful gun sold in terms of caliber; many guns have equal or greater calibre.

Nevertheless, Vice President Harris declared that this “weapon of war” that has “no place in civil society.” What followed would appear to push beyond where President Biden left the issue as a criticism as opposed to a call for an outright ban: “We are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine. We know what works on this. Let’s have an assault weapons ban.”

In boarding Air Force 2 after attending one of the funerals in Texas, Harris told the press “You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed? It was designed for a specific purpose – to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society.”

I have previously written about the failure of politicians to acknowledge the limits posed by the Second Amendment and controlling case law. While there are good-faith objections to how the Second Amendment has been interpreted, the current case law makes such bans very difficult to defend. In 2008, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing the Second Amendment as encompassing an individual right to bear arms.

The effort to ban AR-15s often fails to clearly distinguish the weapons from other semi-automatic weapons in terms of calibre or rate of fire. There are also obvious practical problems. With an estimated 393 million guns in the United States and an estimated 72 million gun owners; three out of ten Americans say they have guns. Indeed, gun ownership rose during the pandemic. When former Texas congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke declared, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15,” he was widely celebrated on the left. However, even seizing that one type of gun would require confiscation of as many as 15 million weapons.

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/05/29/showdown-on-the-second-amendment-harris-calls-for-ban-on-assault-weapons/

'Kill Switch And Detentions': Bush-Era FOIA Docs Reveal Government Plans For Apocalyptic Events

Previously classified files obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice reveal that the 2004 George W. Bush administration conducted a holistic review of the president's emergency powers, with the goal of modernizing a set of secret plans for continuity-of-government in a nuclear war.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library turned over 500 out of 6,000 pages of the documents, known as "presidential emergency action documents" (PEADs), which "shed troub­ling new light on the powers that modern pres­id­ents claim they possess in moments of crisis," according to the Brennan Center, which obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

PEADs were created during the cold war, when the chance of a Soviet nuclear strike was at its peak. Early drafts reportedly rested on broad interpretations of executive powers. According to official reports from the 1960s, various PEADs authorized the president to enact measures such as suspending habeas corpus, to detain "dangerous persons" within the country, to censor news media, and to prevent international travel.

In light if 9/11, one Bush administration official viewed updating the PEADs an "urgent and compel­ling secur­ity effort, espe­cially in light of ongo­ing threats."

While the Brennan Center was unable to obtain more recent PEADs, the documents show "some of the most disturbing aspects of early-Cold War emergency action documents" were maintained at least throughout 2008.

Here are the specific findings via the Brennan Center:

Controlling commu­nic­a­tions

At least one of the docu­ments under review was designed to imple­ment the emer­gency author­it­ies contained in Section 706 of the Commu­nic­a­tions Act. During World War II, Congress gran­ted the pres­id­ent author­ity to shut down or seize control of “any facil­ity or station for wire commu­nic­a­tion” upon proclam­a­tion “that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States.”

This fright­en­ingly expans­ive language was, at the time, hemmed in by Amer­ic­ans’ limited use of tele­phone calls and tele­grams. Today, however, a pres­id­ent will­ing to test the limits of his or her author­ity might inter­pret “wire commu­nic­a­tions” to encom­pass the inter­net — and there­fore claim a “kill switch” over vast swaths of elec­tronic commu­nic­a­tion.

And indeed, Bush admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials repeatedly high­lighted the stat­ute’s flex­ib­il­ity: it was “very broad,” as one offi­cial in the National Secur­ity Coun­cil scribbled, and it exten­ded “broader than common carri­ers in FCC [Federal Commu­nic­a­tions Commis­sion] juris[diction].”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/kill-switch-and-detentions-bush-era-foia-docs-reveal-government-plans-apocalyptic-events

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/presidential-emergency-action-documents#gwb

Passenger Plane With 22 on Board Goes Missing in Nepal

KATHMANDU—A small passenger plane with 22 people on board went missing in cloudy weather in Nepal on Sunday and authorities suspended a search in difficult terrain as night fell.

“The search operation has been suspended for today because of the darkness,” police spokesperson Bishnu Kumar K.C told Reuters. “We could not make any progress. The search will resume early tomorrow.”

Officials said bad weather and mountainous terrain had hampered their efforts to locate the plane, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by privately owned Tara Air.

The plane took off in the morning for a 20-minute flight but lost contact with the control tower five minutes before it was due to land, government officials said.

The plane departed from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125 kilometers (80 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu. It was headed for Jomsom, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara and is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site.

State-owned Nepal Television said villagers had seen an aircraft on fire at the source of the Lyanku Khola River at the foot of the Himalayan mountain Manapathi, in a district bordering Tibet.

“Ground search teams are proceeding toward that direction,” Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Gartaula told Reuters, referring to the fire site. “It could be a fire by villagers or by cowherds. It could be anything.”

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) also said a team was headed to that area.

The airline said the plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans, and 16 Nepalis, including three crew.

Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the missing aircraft, with registration number 9N-AET, made its first flight in April 1979.

The weather office said there had been thick cloud cover in the Pokhara-Jomson area since the morning.

Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents. Its weather can change suddenly and airstrips are typically located in mountainous areas that are hard to reach.

In early 2018, a U.S.–Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.

In 1992, all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it ploughed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.

https://www.ntd.com/passenger-plane-with-22-on-board-goes-missing-in-nepal_786353.html

Massachusetts Governor Vetoes Plan to Give Illegal Immigrants Driver’s Licences

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday vetoed a plan that would have let the state issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants over identity verification concerns as well as concerns involving voting.

The bill (H4805), if passed, would have seen illegal immigrants issued a standard driver’s license from the state if they applied starting July 1, 2023. People who apply would need to provide some proof of identity, date of birth, and state residency.

A spokeswoman for Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano said the chamber plans to take an override vote on June 8, according to the State House News Service. A two-thirds vote is needed in each chamber to enact the legislation.

In a letter to the state legislature (pdf), the Republican governor said he could not sign the measure, saying the state’s motor vehicle registry does not have the ability to verify the identities of illegal immigrants.

“The Registry does not have the expertise to verify the validity of many types of documents from other countries,” he wrote in his veto message.

“This legislation also undoes a critical safeguard to the driver’s license issuance process that I signed into law just six years ago,” he added. “Consequently, a standard Massachusetts driver’s license will no longer confirm that a person is who they say they are.”

https://www.ntd.com/massachusetts-governor-vetoes-plan-to-give-illegal-immigrants-drivers-licences_786310.html

Top Democrat Senator: ‘Serious’ Bipartisan Negotiations on Gun Control Underway

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday that bipartisan negotiations on possible gun legislation are now underway, coming days after a mass shooting in Texas that left 21 dead.

Speaking to ABC News, Murphy, an ally of President Joe Biden, said that possible legislation includes expanding the federal gun background check system, red flag laws, and laws around storing weapons.

“We’re talking about red flag laws. We’re talking about strengthening and expanding the background check system, if not universal background checks. We’re talking about safe storage. And yes, we’re also talking about mental health resources and more security dollars for schools,” Murphy said, claiming that their bill “could have a significant downward pressure” on shootings.

“Maybe that’s the most important thing we could do is just show that progress is possible and that the sky doesn’t fall for Republicans if they support some of these commonsense measures,” he said.

Several days ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) directed Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to lead GOP negotiations with Democrats, including Murphy. After the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) were involved in efforts to pass gun control legislation.

When asked by CNN last week about red flag laws, background checks, or other measures, McConnell stated that he told the Texas senator “to meet with the Democrats who are interested in getting a bipartisan solution and come up with a proposal, if possible, that’s crafted to meet this particular problem.”

Red flag laws refer to gun control measures that allow police or, in some cases, family members to petition a state court to order the removal of a firearm from an individual. More than a dozen states already have passed red flag rules. But opponents have said that red flag laws have deprived individuals of their civil liberties and their Second Amendment rights.

In a separate interview Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, told CNN that “I can tell you I sense a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde,” referring to the shooting.

Officials identified 18-year-old Salvador Ramos as the lone shooter who shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. They said Ramos legally purchased several firearms after his 18th birthday.

Amid the talk of new legislation, Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday called for an “assault weapons ban,” although it’s not clear what she meant.

“We are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine. We know what works on this,” Harris told reporters near Air Force One, adding: “Let’s have an assault weapons ban.”

https://www.ntd.com/top-democrat-senator-serious-bipartisan-negotiations-on-gun-control-underway_786374.html

Mexican Border City Mayor on the Run Amid Corruption Investigation

A recently elected Mexican border city mayor is currently on the run amid a corruption investigation by Tamaulipas state authorities.

This week, the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) confirmed there is an active arrest warrant for the Reynosa Mayor Carlos Victor “Makito” Pena Ortiz. The recently elected mayor is a member of Mexico’s ruling party, Morena. This week, the politician mysteriously asked for leave from his post and has not made any appearances in Mexico since that time. While on the run in Mexico, the politician has been spotted at various bars in South Texas.

According to case file CP/0017/2021 from the Tamaulipas (FGJ), Pena Ortiz is accused of “making operations with illicit funds.” A state judge issued the arrest warrant against Pena on May 18 — just days before he asked for leave.

Pena Ortiz filed several requests for injunction or “amparo,” in an attempt to keep state authorities from arresting him. The man known as Makito is the son of former Reynosa Mayor Maki Ortiz, who also filed for injunctions against her arrest. However, it is unclear if she has any current arrest warrants.

As Breitbart Texas reported, the controversy regarding Pena Ortiz comes at a time when he and other members of the Morena Party have been linked to a cartel-connected fuel theft mogul named Sergio Carmona. While unknown gunmen killed Carmona late last year, much information has come out in recent months about how the fuel theft mogul allegedly funded campaigns for Morena candidates and provided them with luxury SUVs.

Additionally, current Morena gubernatorial candidate for Tamaulipas Americo Villarreal was also linked to Carmona. Last week, Breitbart Texas exclusively revealed that Villarreal’s son had been flagged for bank fraud in the Netherlands.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2022/05/28/mexican-border-city-mayor-on-the-run-amid-corruption-investigation/

After killings attributed to Israel, Bennett vows ‘no immunity’ for Iranian regime

‘Whoever funds terrorists, whoever arms terrorists, whoever sends out terrorists, will pay the full price,’ PM says

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Iran on Sunday that its terror-sponsoring “immunity is over,” after a week that saw an Iranian colonel assassinated and an Iranian engineer killed at a military complex — both actions reportedly attributed to Israel.

“For years the Iranian regime employed terror against Israel and the region through its emissaries, but the head of the octopus, Iran itself, enjoyed some sort of immunity,” Bennett said at the opening of a special cabinet meeting to mark Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the city’s reunification during the 1967 Six Day War.

“As we have said more than once, the period of immunity for the Iranian regime is over,” he said, in what some took to be a hint at Israeli involvement in the recent killings. “Whoever funds terrorists, whoever arms terrorists, whoever sends out terrorists, will pay the full price.”

On Wednesday, an explosion at Iran’s Parchin military complex killed an engineer. The New York Times reported Friday that the attack was carried out by quadcopter suicide drones, in an attack that fits a pattern of previous strikes that have been attributed to Israel.

The alleged drone strike came after gunmen on May 22 killed an officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the middle of Tehran.

Israel has told US officials that it was behind the assassination and that it killed Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in an effort to warn Tehran against the continued operation of an alleged covert unit he helped lead, an intelligence official told the Times. Israeli officials did not confirm the report, and publicly criticized the US over the leaked story.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-killings-attributed-to-israel-bennett-vows-no-immunity-for-iranian-regime/

US mass media demonizing Russian Armed Forces — Russian Embassy

The US mass media placing the blame on Russia with instigating genocide in Ukraine

Accusations that Russia instigates genocide in Ukraine spread by US mass media are part of a campaign to demonize Russian Armed Forces, the Russian Embassy in the US said.

"We paid attention to the report of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy NGO spread in the US mass media, placing the blame on Russia with instigating genocide in Ukraine. Next anti-Russia insinuations are an element of a campaign orchestrated by the West to demonize Russian Armed Forces," the Embassy said.

"Affairs are quite opposite on the spot," the Russian diplomatic mission said. "Humanitarian aid is being built up in Ukrainian areas controlled by Russian Armed Forces," diplomats noted. "The Russian side guarantees security of humanitarian corridors," the Embassy added.

https://tass.com/politics/1457389

Federal court imposes unconstitutional maps for Ohio state legislative primaries

The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio also ordered state to hold its second primary Aug. 2.

Federal judges made good on a promise at midnight Saturday by implementing Ohio state legislative district maps that were previously ruled unconstitutional twice by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, by a vote of 2-1, also ordered the state to hold its second primary Aug. 2.

“Given the factual record before us, two reasons justified our approach. First, no map had wo the approval of both the Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. And second, Map 3 gave the state the most time to fix its own problem. That broke the tie,” the order, signed by judges Amul Thapar and Benjamin Beaton, read.

The order came from a lawsuit filed by a group of Republican voters.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose tweeted late Friday he would soon issues a directive for boards of election to prepare for the Aug. 2 primary. LaRose has said that primary could cost the state as much as $20 million.

Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, and House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, the two Democratic members of the seven-member commission, sent a letter to other commission members asking for a meeting before June 3, the Supreme Court-imposed deadline to submit a new set of maps.

“This is a sad day for democracy. The federal court’s ruling rewarded lawlessness, partisanship, and unchecked power that Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected twice at the ballot box,” House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington and a commission member, said in a statement. “There is no justice in denying voters the opportunity for fair and free elections that use constitutional maps. Corruption and extremism will continue in Ohio until politicians in power put the voices of voters ahead of politics.”

The Ohio Redistricting Commission’s third set of state district maps have been ruled unconstitutional twice by the Supreme Court, most recently May 25 when it called the commission’s actions a “stunning rebuke of the rule of law.”

Republicans had resubmitted the third set of maps – tossed out once before by the court – because they said they did not have time to draw new maps.

The Supreme Court has said each of the four sets of maps presented by the commission were unfairly gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/federal-court-imposes-unconstitutional-maps-ohio-state-legislative

Senior rabbi says Lapid and Lieberman 'are worse than Nazis'

Ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Meir Mazuz serves as the head of the Kiseh Rahamim (chair of mercy) yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman are "worse than the Nazis, traitors to their nation and haters of their own people," said ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Meir Mazuz at his weekly sermon on Saturday.

"We have bad people," he said, referring to the current Israeli governmental administration, "we are waiting for them to one day be out of this world." Mazuz said that the two ministers were worse than Nazis because, "the Nazis loved their people, and they hate their people," Walla reported.

Mazuz serves as the head of the Kiseh Rahamim (chair of mercy) yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

"The Nazis loved their people, but [Lapid and Lieberman] hate their people."

Rabbi Meir Mazuz

In his speech, he was discussing the miracles that the Jewish people have seen, particularly for Jerusalem Day, but criticized the current government for its "choking of Kollel men."

Reactions from politicians

Lapid said in response to Mazuz that "the Nazis murdered my grandfather in a concentration camp, tried to murder my father in the ghetto. My only answer to your words is that I love all the people of Israel and wish you a happy Jerusalem Day."

Vad Vashem Chairman, Danny Dayan, said that Mazuz's statements are "outrageous and should not be heard at all, no less from the mouth of a rabbi in Israel in particular.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-707996

Western Civilization at a Crossroads: Mythical Hegemony or Win-Win Paradigm?

As the world is moving slowly but surely to the edge of the abyss, there is a parallel crisis going within the nations that claim to exemplify the best of “western values” while undermining and violating them at every point.

Of course, the West blames all the problems of the world on the East, particularly Russia and China but there are some “dissident” voices that need to be heard at least for the sake of those who are interested in searching for ideas that might avoid Armageddon.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote:

“East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat.”

In his poem, Kipling was expressing his belief that cultures of the East and West were so intrinsically different that any hope for harmony or mutual interest was little more than a delusion.

How could such a worldview possibly mesh with the cultures of Orthodox Russia, Confucian China, or the Islamic world? To the degree that those cultures maintained their ancient traditions and values, it obviously could not, as only total submission to a hegemon could resolve the conflict.

However, instead of looking to those modern heirs of Kipling’s vision based in Washington D.C. as the role models for ‘western civilization’, it would be much more appropriate to look instead to the much more dignified example of the founding fathers of America. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Jay and John Quincy Adams were men who believed in peaceful conflict resolutions, promoted diplomacy over war, and sought solutions based in mutual self-interest for all parties.

Those were also the days when Russia helped the newborn nation to withstand the pressure of the colonial British Empire. This spirit of friendship was rekindled when Russia saved the union during the Civil War, and again as both nations fought to put down fascism in WW2.

The 1991 collapse of the USSR presented a unique chance for America to return the favor and exercise a geostrategic vision by sharing its best accomplishments in a win-win paradigm.

Russia and even the USSR under the late Gorbachev time frame were ready for the full integration with the West but instead, she was hollowed out under the dark age of looting overseen by the administration of Bill Clinton and IMF-imposed regime. They ensured that Russia’s industries were crushed, new oligarchs were built up on the riches of privatized state assets, which lead to the 1998 default of its economy.

At the same time, instead of dissolving itself as the Warsaw military block did, NATO continued its “drang nach Osten” with a broader ‘full spectrum dominance’ agenda encircling Russia with a missile shield that countless experts have warned can be made offensive in short notice.

At the same time another most visible destruction took place in Ukraine which today has become the sparkplug for a potential thermonuclear WW3.

This country that enjoyed one of the highest per capita economies of Europe in 1990 could have prospered by choosing neutral military status, while taking the best that the West and East could offer. Instead the West decided to turn it into anti-Russia strategic beachhead.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/matthew-ehret-edward-lozansky-western-civilization-crossroads-mythical-hegemony-win-win-paradigm/5781727

"Quite Misleading": DuckDuckGo CEO Responds To Microsoft Tracker Controversy

Update: DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg took to Twitter on Saturday, calling our headline "quite misleading" since "this isn't about our search engine and we actually restrict Microsoft scripts in our browsers, including blocking their 3rd party cookies."

Weinberg links to a Reddit thread he created on Wednesday when the tracking controversy broke. In it, he explains: "this article is not about our search engine, but about our browsers," adding that "When most other browsers on the market talk about tracking protection they are usually referring to 3rd-party cookie protection and fingerprinting protection, and our browsers impose these same restrictions on all third-party tracking scripts, including those from Microsoft."

And while Redditors appeared sympathetic in the replies, users in the more technically oriented YCombinator Hacker News forum weren't buying it.

The top response refutes Weinberg's claim that "this is not about search," explaining; "Your competitors in the privacy-centric browser space don’t have this restriction because they’re not search engines acquiring the majority of their data from an entity with a conflicting interest."

Another user replied: "The thread by the security engineer shows that the scripts are communicating back to the servers. That means your multi-pronged protection has failed, unless you've suddenly discovered a way for browsers to block IP addresses from being sent by scripts (and since they can be extracted from the request itself that doesn't seem likely)."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/privacy-search-engine-duckduckgo-smoked-over-hidden-tracking-agreement-microsoft