Felicity Huffman Pleads Guilty In College Admission Scandal, Faces Jail Time

One of the biggest profile names caught up in the largest college admissions scandal ever, actress Felicity Huffman, has pled guilty today, according to Bloomberg and Reuters. She now faces prison time.

Huffman, who once starred in the television series "Desperate Housewives", pled guilty in Boston federal court to a conspiracy charge for paying $15,000 to have somebody secretly correct her daughter's SAT entrance exam answers. She is the latest in a line of defendants who have pled guilty as a result of the scandal.

Huffman's daughter scored a 1420 on her SAT, 400 points higher than her Preliminary SAT exam a year earlier. Huffman is said to have discussed the scheme on a recorded phone call with the scheme's mastermind, William "Rick" Singer.

Huffman is married to actor William H. Macy and was nominated for an Oscar for "Best Actress" in 2005.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-13/actress-felicity-huffman-set-plead-guilty-college-admission-scandal

Putin to receive Pompeo and Lavrov on May 14, confirms Kremlin spokesman

Lavrov’s talks with Pompeo in Sochi will be their second meeting in the current month

SOCHI, May 13. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to receive on Tuesday US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo who will arrive in Sochi for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday.

"The main event of tomorrow is talks between Lavrov and Pompeo. After the talks, they both will meet with the president," he said. "Putin will receive them. They will tell about the results of their talks and discuss those issues that are evident."

Earlier, Peskov did not rule out Putin’s possible meeting with Pompeo but never confirmed it unequivocally.

Lavrov’s talks with Pompeo in Sochi will be their second meeting in the current month. They had 60-minute talks in Finland’s Rovaniemi on May 6. Lavrov said after the meeting it was a quite good step forward in the furtherance of the May 3 telephone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Donald Trump of the United States that was initiated by the US side.

http://tass.com/world/1058013

Trump says he will meet with Xi and Putin at G20

President Donald Trump has said he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at next month’s G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump announced the pair of meetings to reporters in the Oval office on Monday afternoon.

“I’ll be meeting with him directly, President Xi. Yes, I will be meeting with President Putin also,” he said.

Earlier that morning, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Washington had requested a meeting with Putin, and was awaiting the Kremlin’s response.

A Kremlin spokesman responded to Trump’s statement on Monday by saying no preparations were underway for such a meeting.

https://www.rt.com/usa/459249-trump-meet-putin-g20-xi/

Poles Protest US Push For Holocaust Reparations

Polish nationalists protested Saturday against pressure from the United States for Poland to provide reparations to Polish victims of the Holocaust.

Protesters marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, angry at U.S. involvement and saying that the U.S. is pushing Poland to put Jewish interests above Polish interests according to the Associated Press. The reparations are intended to compensate in a small way for the murder of 3.3 million Jewish Poles by Nazi Germany during World War II. However, protesters claim that Poland was also a victim of Nazi oppression and still suffers from the repercussions of World War II, according to Fox News.

The protest comes amidst a “dramatic rise” in anti-Semitic sentiment in Poland, AP reports.

The march was “probably the biggest openly anti-Jewish street demonstration in Europe in recent years,” said sociologist and head of the anti-extremist group Never Again Rafal Pankowski.

“No to claims!” the protesters shouted, according to AP. They also used the Hebrew word for Poland, Polin, shouting,”This is Poland, not Polin.”

“Why should we have to pay money today when nobody gives us anything?” 22-year-old Kamil Wencwel told the Associated Press. “Americans only think about Jewish and not Polish interests.”

The protest was joined by several far right politicians including Janusz Korwin-Mikke and Grzegorz Braun, politicians who oppose LGBTQ “propaganda” and who stand against reparations to Jewish families. Participants wore shirts with the inscriptions “death to the enemies of the fatherland.” Other protesters wore shirts referring to the Polish massacre of their Jewish neighbors during World War II reading, “I will not apologize for Jedwabne,” according to AP.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also said at a campaign rally on Saturday that it is the Poles who deserve restitution.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/12/poles-protest-holocaust-reparations/

Top Iranian Official Taunts: US "Not Ready For A War, Specially When Israel Is Within Our Range"

The Iranians are openly threatening to start firing missiles at Israel if Trump decides to attack Iran. And this threat should not be taken lightly, because Iran has a highly sophisticated ballistic missile arsenal, and Hezbollah has approximately 150,000 missiles pointed directly at Israel right now.

If the order is given, the Iranians and their proxy Hezbollah could rain an enormous amount of death and destruction down upon Israel, and of course Israel would hit them back even harder. We are talking about a scenario that could potentially trigger World War 3, and the Iranians apparently believe that the possibility of such an outcome will keep Trump from taking military action against them. The following comes from the Times of Israel…

A senior Iranian official on Sunday dismissed the US military buildup in the region as psychological warfare, saying that the US will not attack for fear of provoking an Iranian assault on Israel.

“The US military forces’ deployment in the Persian Gulf is more of the nature of psychological warfare. They are not ready for a war, specially when Israel is within our range,” Iranian Parliament’s Vice-Speaker Ali Motahhari said on Sunday, according to the FARS news agency.

In addition to its own missiles, Iranian proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip have hundreds of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel.

Perhaps the Iranians are correct and the U.S. has no intention of starting a war. But we have already seen that the Trump administration has not been afraid to engage in a campaign of “maximum pressure” that has pushed us to the brink of military conflict. In recent days the Trump administration has decided that they will not allow Iran to sell oil to anybody at all, and the crushing sanctions that were imposed on Iran last year have been absolutely devastating for the Iranian economy…

The sweeping unilateral sanctions that Washington re-imposed when it quit the agreement a year ago have dealt a severe blow to the Iranian economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, driving away foreign investors and triggering protests.

And for good reason: the plunging value of the rial has affected the prices of imported staples as well as locally produced goods. According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the cost of red meat and poultry has increased by 57% over the past 12 months; milk, cheese and eggs by 37%; and vegetables by 47%.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-13/world-war-3-top-iranian-official-taunts-us-not-ready-war-specially-when-israel

Sri Lanka Commander Voices Alarm Over Inking Military Pact With US

Under the agreement, Sri Lankan customs could neither inspect American service personnel nor their baggage, and they would be allowed to export goods bought in Sri Lanka to the US without being questioned.

New Delhi (Sputnik): Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake has opposed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US, according to a Sri Lankan media report.

Lieutenant General Senanayake has termed the agreement as a lop-sided treaty with the US which "undermines" domestic laws and tax regimes without reciprocity from the US. He said that he would not agree for the agreement, reports News 1st, a Sri Lankan news outlet, reported.

SOFA allegedly contains clauses that undermine domestic rule of law and tax without reciprocity.

Washington has requested that American military personnel be subject to US law when they are in Sri Lanka, several opposition parliamentarians alleged earlier. "There is also a request to exempt US military personnel from taxes in Sri Lanka", JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake said.

According to the army chief, many regional and world powers are vying to gain a foothold in the island country and take advantage of the current situation because of the strategic and geographical importance of the nation, the media report said.

"How can we sign such an agreement? We can't agree to what is stated in it. That is like committing suicide after writing all my properties to someone else", he said.

According to media reports, criticism has been voiced by various political parties and other stakeholders over the signing of SOFA. Opponents say that the agreement will pose a severe threat to the country's sovereignty.

The general opinion is that SOFA contains clauses that undermine domestic laws and tax regime without any reciprocity from the other party.

The government's political opponents have said that Washington had asked for all its military personnel that are to be stationed in Sri Lanka be under the jurisdiction of US law, and to be exempt from Sri Lankan taxes.

According to media reports, the Sri Lankan government is considering signing the SOFA agreement with the US, with the planned move inviting strong criticism from opposition parties and other stakeholders who consider that, if signed, the agreement will pose a severe threat to the country's sovereignty.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201905141074960726-sri-lanka-chief-objects-forces-agreement-us/