17 Jul, 2023 17:52

North Korea spurns offer of peace talks

Pyongyang has dismissed a US proposal for negotiations, saying the country’s nuclear program cannot be stopped

North Korea has dismissed a US proposal for peace talks as a ploy, accusing Washington of provoking conflict in the region while holding out false hope that it can persuade Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons program by temporarily easing sanctions or suspending military exercises.

Kim Yo-jong, North Korea’s foreign policy chief and sister of leader Kim Jong-un, said on Monday that the best way to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is forPyongyang to amply display its military might, “rather than solving the problem with the gangster-like Americans in a friendly manner.”She called Washington’s latest offer of peace negotiations a “trick” to buy time for trying to denuclearize the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“It is a daydream for the US to think that it can stop the advance of the DPRK and, furthermore, achieve irreversible disarmament” by offering such reversible incentives as sanctions relief, suspension of the Pentagon’s joint military exercises with South Korea and a halt to deployment of strategic weapons in the region, Kim Yo-jong said in a statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA.

Kim made her comments one day after US President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, told reporters that Washington was willing to negotiate with North Korea “without preconditions” concerning its nuclear weapons program. He said the Biden administration is closely monitoring the threats posed by North Korea’s missile launches and is concerned that Pyongyang will conduct its seventh nuclear warhead test.

Kim said the US should stop its “foolish”provocations toward the DPRK, which have only imperiled Washington’s own security. “We are aware that lurking behind the present US administration’s proposal for dialogue without any preconditions is a trick to prevent the thing that it fears from happening again.”

Even if the US were to go as far as removing all of its troops from South Korea in exchange for permanent denuclearization by Pyongyang, it could redeploy strategic weapons to the peninsula within 10 hours and bring back enough soldiers to resume joint exercises within 20 days, Kim said. She added that any promises made by the current administrations in Washington and Seoul could be “instantly reversed” when their successors come to power,such as when Biden replaced Donald Trump in the White House.

Similarly, Kim said the US and its allies could easily renege on diplomatic concessions. “It is as easy as pie for the US political circles to exclude the DPRK from the list of ‘sponsors of terrorism’ today but re-list it tomorrow.”She claimed that tensions in the region have escalated on Biden’s watchto the point that “the possibility of an actual armed conflict and even the outbreak of a nuclear war is debated.”

https://www.rt.com/news/579861-north-korea-rejects-us-peace-talks/

17 Jul, 2023 16:18

Top official defends Budapest’s anti-LGBTQ policies

A Foreign Ministry official blasted Western ambassadors who signed a joint call for the Hungarian government to repeal LGBTQ propaganda laws

A senior official from Hungary’s Foreign Ministry has blasted foreign embassies in Budapest for interfering in the country’s internal affairs – after ambassadors from Germany, the US, and 36 other countries signed a joint statement calling on Viktor Orban’s government to repeal anti-LGBTQ laws.

Ahead of an LGBTQ Pride event in Budapest on Saturday, Tamas Menczer, the secretary of state responsible for bilateral relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, released a ten-point response to the Western ambassadors,vowing to protect Hungarian children from LGBTQ propaganda“even if they put pressure on us and attack us.”

Menczer went on to say that instead of worrying about LGBTQ laws in Hungary, countries such as France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Germany, and the US should address their own problems, such as migrant riots, rising crime, drugs, andquestionable elections.

“I could go on and on with the countries of all the signatory ambassadors,” the MP wrote, adding that the foreign ambassadors “are not governors here, andHungary is not a colony.”

“I am amazed that, despite the serious problems of democracy mentioned above in their country, they deal with the internal affairs of another country,” Menczer said.

The official added that “such behavior is completely foreign to Hungarian foreign policy”and stressed that Hungarian ambassadors “always treat the host country with respect and never comment on internal affairs.”

Viktor Orban’s 2021 anti-LGBTQ propaganda law has been the topic of heated debate in the EU, with the European Commission, European Parliament, and over a dozen EU states filing a joint lawsuit against Hungary, arguing that the law violates the rights of LGBTQ individuals and infringes on free speech.

Orban’s government insists that the law only aims to protect children and does not target the LGBTQ community.

The Children Protection Act, which was originally designed to tackle pedophilia and safeguard children’s wellbeing, prohibits the display of content depicting or promoting homosexuality and gender reassignment to those under the age of 18.

(Kek…Questionable Elections!)

https://www.rt.com/news/579854-hungary-lgbtq-laws-eu/

17 Jul, 2023 17:05

Putin vows retaliation for new Crimean Bridge strike

The blast was yet another “pointless and brutal” terrorist attack by the Kiev regime, the Russian president says

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed retaliation for a new strike on the Crimean Bridge, targeted by two Ukrainian naval drones overnight.Exact retaliatory measures are currently being weighed by the country’s Defense Ministry, he said during an extraordinary meeting with senior officials on Monday.

“The incident is a yet another terrorist attack by the Kiev regime. This crime is pointless from the military point of view, since the Crimean Bridge has long not been used for military transport, and brutal, since only innocent civilians were killed and injured,” the president stressed.

Putin said Moscow would retaliate harshly for the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry is already preparing “necessary proposals” for such measures, he added.

The president also urged officials to ramp up security measures around the bridge, noting that this marks the second such blow against it. Both the road and railway sections were heavily damaged last October, when a truck packed with explosives was detonated on the bridge.

“I am waiting for specific proposals to improve the security of this strategically important transport facility,” Putin added.

The bridge received considerable damage in the new attack, with one of its road sections “completely destroyed,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, tasked with organizing repairs to the structure, said during the meeting. However, he told the president that the bridge’s pillars had not been damaged in the blast.

“That’s good news. If we can speak about some good news here at all. But the fact that the pillars are not damaged is the most important thing,” Putin replied.

The morning blasts, believed to have been caused by seaborne drones, killed two Russian civilians who were traveling across the bridge in a vehicle, and left their now orphaned 14-year-old daughter injured.

(Note: Russia has never spoke about retaliation before.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/579860-putin-statement-bridge/

Fox News hit with new defamation lawsuit after massive settlement

Nina Jankowicz was former executive director of government division dealing with disinformation threats to national security

A counter-disinformation expert has sued Fox News for allegedly promoting lies about her, just weeks after the network settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m.

Nina Jankowicz was the former executive director of a Department of Homeland Security division dealing with disinformation threats to national security.

The federal government’s Disinformation Governance Board was short-lived as it came under ferocious attack from right-wing politicians and pundits, including a string of Fox News hosts.

Ms Jankowicz, who is a specialist in Russian disinformation, was mentioned 300 times over the span of eight months on Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing channel, the lawsuit states.

Fox News hosts including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo were among those who talked about her, with Carlson warning his audience she would “get men with guns to tell you to shut up.”

The lawsuit states that after the 34-year-old resigned to escape the attention she was receiving, Fox News hosts falsely claimed she had ben fired,” according to The New York Times.

Ms Jankowicz filed her lawsuit in the same Delaware court that Dominion Voting Systems filed its $1.6bn defamation claim, which was settled last month as the last minute.

She is seeking unspecified damages in her own case.

“Even after achieving their stated goal of driving me out of government and ending the board, they kept using me as a punching bag,” Ms Jankowicz told the newspaper on Wednesday.

“It shouldn’t be something we just accept, that the most powerful cable network in the world can attack individuals willy-nilly and not face any consequences after they ruin their lives.”

Days after Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems it parted company with Carlson, who has said he will continue to do his show on Twitter, despite still being under contract to the channel.

Lachlan Murdoch has said that Fox News paid the settlement to avoid a divisive trial and lengthy appeals process.

Mr Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp, also noted that a Delaware judge “severely limited” Fox’s defences against Dominion Voting Systems, which said the network defamed it by airing bogus charges of election fraud that it knew was untrue.

“We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and multi-year appeal process, a decision clearly in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” he told financial analysts.

Graeme MassieThursday 11 May 2023 00:48

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fox-news-lawsuit-nina-jankowicz-b2336645.html

>>19196975

Thats all they’ve been doing. As terrorists they attack unarmed people but in a war with Russian Soldiers they lose badly.They are terrorists like Isis and all the rest. Not proficient in warfare at all

>>19196941

Then tell me how this got into the press? Very odd don’t you think? Nobody ratted out obama’s cocaine parties

>>19196911

McFaul loves war

>>19196863

Why not they told them to not sign in the peace and they told them to war with Russia even though they have no idea what they are doing, why not tell them to not poke the Russian Bear?

>>19197150

He did with the jews?