SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket With 60 Satellites Lifts Off From Cape Canaveral
A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first 60 satellites in SpaceX's Starlink internet constellation lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 10:30 p.m. local time.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201905241075287687-spacex-falcon-9-cape-canaveral/
What do you think they are really deploying?
Former CIA Officer Pleads Guilty To Spying For China
An ex-CIA agent pleaded guilty to spying on behalf of China Wednesday — the same day 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden suggested China is not a threat to the United States.
Fifty-four-year-old Jerry Chun Shing Lee was facing three charges including one charge of spying and two charges of unlawful retention of classified information. He pleaded guilty to spying in exchange for the two unlawful retentions of information charges to be dropped. Lee is currently facing 18-to-27 years in prison.
Chinese operatives allegedly told Lee — a U.S. citizen, originally from Hong Kong — that he would be taken care of financially for life if he carried out spying operations against the United States. Lee’s first paycheck from the Chinese in 2010 was for roughly $100,000.
“I conspired to gather and send secret information to the [People’s Republic of China],” Lee said in court in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday.
The case’s prosecutor said, “Lee sold out his country. He conspired to become a spy for a foreign government, and then repeatedly lied to investigators about his conduct,” G. Zachary Terwilliger, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia said in court.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/02/cia-china-spy-pleads-guilty/
Trump Administration Withholding Wildfire Assistance To California After Audit Suggests Financial Mismanagement: Officials
The Trump administration is withholding over $9 million in wildfire assistance to California after a financial audit suggested the state was overbilling the U.S. Forest Service for costs incurred fighting fires on federal lands, officials said.
The Forest Service wants California to provide line-item tabulations of personnel expenditures after its audit found the state was seeking reimbursements without sufficient documentation.
California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said the requirements would “severely impact California’s ability to respond to fires.”
The Trump administration is withholding over $9 million in wildfire assistance to California after a financial audit suggested the state was overbilling the U.S. Forest Service for costs incurred fighting fires on federal lands, officials said.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) said the withheld funds from the original $72 million reimbursement request are owed to local fire departments for costs incurred during the 2018 wildfire season, which took the lives of at least 85 people. The Forest Service said it needs to see the receipts before disbursing any more funds under the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA).
“The audit found that the current CFAA does not result in reimbursement of actual expenses to local fire departments,” the Forest Service said in a statement Wednesday to the Los Angeles Times. “Our intentions are to fully reimburse the State of California for all of their actual expenses. The only payments that we have not made are those that do not have documentation that substantiate actual expenses.”
The Cal OES said the federal government is unfairly changing the terms of the CFAA at the tail-end of the five-year agreement set to expire in 2020. Under the original terms of the agreement, the state would submit the average personnel costs incurred by the thousands of firefighters fighting wildfires on federal lands each year, but now the Forest Service is requesting a line-item tabulation of salary, travel and other expenses incurred by each firefighter.
President Donald Trump said in November 2018 that California’s “gross mismanagement of the forests” was the cause of 2018’s deadly wildfire season, and threatened to withhold federal assistance if changes weren’t made.
The president’s comments drew the ire of Senate Republicans such as Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/22/trump-forest-service-california-fires/
President Trump Orders Intel Community: Declassify Docs And Fully Cooperate With AG Barr
Note: This story is developing and will be updated
President Donald Trump directed the intelligence community Thursday to “quickly and fully cooperate” with Department of Justice Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
In Thursday’s memo Trump ordered the Department of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, Secretary of Energy, Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence and the director of the CIA to assist Barr in his review of the activities of the agencies during the FBI’s probe into alleged – now debunked – collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” said Sanders in a statement released late Thursday. “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long established standards for handling classified information.”
“Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions,” she added.
The review will be expansive, according to the memo and department’s involved. Declassification and downgrading of highly classified material will be involved, as stated in the president’s memo.
https://saraacarter.com/president-trump-orders-intel-community-declassify-docs-and-fully-cooperate-with-ag-barr/
Sara Carter Reveals “EXPLOSIVE” Unmasking Revelations About to Break on Samantha Power
Power was accused of unmasking innocent Americans in the final months of the Obama administration.
The former UN ambassador unmasked 300 individuals, an unheard number, in her last year in office.
On Thursday night investigative journalist Sara Carter said we will find out something soon on Samantha Power and the people she unmasked and it will be shocking.
The coming days are going to be lit.
Zarif says ready to connect Pakistan's Gwadar to Iran's Chabahar
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he is putting forward a "proposal" during his ongoing trip to Islamabad for connecting Pakistan's Gwadar port to its "complementary" port Chabahar in southeastern Iran.
"We believe that Chabahar and Gwadar can complement each other," Zarif said upon arrival in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Thursday.
"We can connect Chabahar and Gwadar, and then through that, connect Gwadar to our entire railroad system, from Iran to the North Corridor, through Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and also through Azerbaijan, Russia, and through Turkey," he noted.
"I've come here with a proposal for the government of Pakistan for connection between Chabahar and Gwadar.
Pakistan's arch-rival India is trying to develop the port of Chabahar as a way to gain access to the markets of central Asia as well as Afghanistan by bypassing Pakistan. The port is about 72 km from its Pakistani counterpart Gwadar, which is being developed by China.
The strategic Iranian port city created a unique opportunity for India to send its goods to landlocked Afghanistan through a safe new route. It would to the same effect enable Afghan merchants to export their commodities – mainly fruits and vegetables as well as nuts and minerals – to global markets through Chabahar.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/24/596744/Iran-Zarif-Pakistan-Chabahar-Gwadar-railroad-port