YouTube to Fund Far-Left Young Turks Journalism ‘Academy’

Google-owned video platform YouTube will provide funding to the Young Turks, one of the largest far-left channels on YouTube, to create an online “journalism” course called “TYT Academy,” reports Axios.

Axios reports that the investment is in the “mid-six figures” range.

“The investment is part of YouTube’s $25 million commitment to news efforts, which is part of the $300 million Google News Initiative that was announced in 2018.”

Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur, an American of Turkish descent, has repeatedly faced controversy over his past comments denying the Armenian genocide, the massacre and forced expulsion of approximately 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government between 1914 and 1923.

In a letter to the far-left online publication Salon in 1999, Uygur wrote:

The United States helped to sponsor war propaganda against Turkey during World War I as part of an official campaign to smear its enemies, as it did with Germany. Part of this propaganda was the evil butchery of the Turks against the defenseless Christian Armenians. This is what has been rooted in the popular memory of America, with very few Turkish-Americans to combat the insinuations of savagery, yet this is not propaganda?

As far as I could see from the article, every non-Armenian scholar in the field believes it is an open question whether this event was a genocide. Is it the claim of the article that all of these people are tainted by the tentacles of the Turkish government? If not, then why is it not pointed out that no one outside of the “Armenian position” believes it is a genocide? Why is it assumed that the “Turkish studies side” has the burden of proof in overturning the verdict of Turkish guilt? It is because of the underlying assumption that despite what these people in “Turkish studies” say, there must have been a genocide.

While in college, Uygur wrote a column for his student newspaper saying, “The claims of an Armenian Genocide are not based on historical facts…once you really examine the history of the time it becomes apparent that the allegations of an Armenian Genocide are unfounded.”

More recently, Young Turks host Hasan Piker, a nephew of Uygur, attracted widespread condemnation for arguing that the United States “deserved” the September 11th attacks.

“America deserved 9/11, dude. F-ck it I’m saying it,” said Piker in a live broadcast.

“americas foreign policy decisions has lead to 911. this would’ve been a controversial thing to say in 2001. stop being a fucking idiot,” Piker later tweeted.

Pike later appeared to walk back his comments, saying they were “inappropriate.”

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/02/12/report-youtube-to-fund-far-left-young-turks-journalism-academy/

Israel lashes out at UNHRC after LIST of companies doing business in occupied Palestine is finally released

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has released a long-delayed database of firms doing business in the occupied Palestinian territories. The anodyne, well-hidden document was denounced by Tel Aviv as ‘shameful capitulation.’

The document lists 112 companies operating in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights. The vast majority are Israeli firms, and their number is significantly less than the 206 corporations hinted at when the idea of the database was initially floated back in 2017. Its publication Wednesday in a difficult-to-locate corner of the UNHRC website is nevertheless provoking strong reactions from Israel and its most strident ally, the US.

The report is a “shameful capitulation” to anti-Israel groups, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told reporters on Wednesday. Pro-Israel group StandWithUs called it an “outrageous and anti-Semitic ‘blacklist’” and warned that “boycotts against Jews are an age-old anti-Semitic tactic.” However, the UN report does not even suggest the companies on the list be boycotted.

US companies listed include Airbnb, Expedia, TripAdvisor, General Mills, Booking Holdings, and Motorola, while Dutch firms Kardan NV, Tahal Group International BV, Booking.com, and Altice Europe NV also find themselves on the list. The UK’s JC Bamford Excavators, Opodo, and Greenkote PLC make an appearance, as do France’s Alstom and Egis Rail. Israeli subsidiaries of international businesses, including Delta and Re/Max, are also on the list. Some 76 other companies suspected of doing business in the illegally-occupied areas “did not meet the standard of proof” and were omitted.

https://www.rt.com/news/480680-unhrc-releases-israeli-settlements-companies/

Nightmarish Sexual Assault Exam Forced on 5yo Girl by Police Because She Fell Off a Trampoline

Mountain View, CA — Madeleine Lother, 5, was on a play date with friends at a trampoline park last year when she took a spill and fell on a large knotted rope. That fall would then set off a series of events that would lead to a living nightmare for the girl and her parents and a $600,000 settlement.

On Friday, the family accepted a $600,000 settlement after their daughter was forced to undergo a humiliating exam. The Daily Post reports that the Lothers filed a motion asking a judge to approve a $600,000 settlement. The settlement would cover the Lothers’ attorneys fees and does not require any admission of guilt or liability from any of the defendants. The daughter who was stripped would receive about $80,000. Her older sister, who was also questioned by police, would get about $40,000. The Lothers’ attorney, Robert Powell of San Jose, would be paid $40,000. The parents would receive $440,000.

This nightmare for the Lother family started on January 25 at a trampoline park when Madeline fell off a rope and injured herself.

“She was crying. She went in the foam pit and continued to play with her friends, and she was crying, holding her private area,” said Madeleine’s mother Danielle.

When Danielle got home, she checked her daughter’s private area, saw a minor scrape, and then called the pediatrician for advice. The injury was so minor, however, that it required very little attention.

“I mean, we kept checking it. I washed it. We bathed her, but it was kind of like a non-issue after that,” Danielle said, according to ABC 7.

Doug, Madeleine’s father, said, “By the end of the day, there was no bleeding. It seemed like a full recovery, yeah.”

The incident was over and on Monday, Madeleine returned to school as normal.

Madeleine, like any child would do, then told her teacher about the injury. In a childlike manner, Madeleine told the teacher that her vagina was bleeding. Instead of calling the girl’s parents, however, the school called Child Protective Services, who then showed up with police to the Lother residence—beating on the door.

“They all just came into the house and I was just kind of like pushed to the side,” said Danielle.

Once inside, according to the lawsuit, police officers Mark Poirier, Mason Motomura and Matthew Rogers would proceed to break the law by refusing to tell the parents why they were there.

“When these people came to the door, they should have told the mother, by law, why they were there, what the claim was,” Bob Powell, the Lother’s attorney said. But they did not.

Police then took the girl outside into the front yard — without her parents — and questioned her without consent. According to the lawsuit, the girl told officers exactly what happened, explaining how she fell at the trampoline park. After being interrogated in public by three police officers, however, the girl began to whine and told police she did not want to answer anymore questions.

According to the suit, Poirier is heard on a police body camera recording saying that the concerns of possible sexual abuse seemed “more and more unfounded,” and that the injuries were innocent in nature.

However, they were hell bent on forcing this little girl to undergo a horrifying sexual assault exam anyway.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/girl-forced-exam-police-lawsuit/

Suspected terrorists & war criminals that Sweden cannot deport given job permits & passports, warns migration chief

Sweden’s top migration official has warned the country is a ‘safe haven for war criminals and potential terrorists,’ as it gives passports and benefits to suspected dangerous criminals, shielded from deportation by legislation.

The northern European country is remarkably welcoming to foreigners seeking refuge, but Sweden can reject an application on security grounds. The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) has the authority to deport a person it deems to be a threat due to suspected links to terrorism or allegations that the applicant has committed serious crimes.

But ordering the deportation of such a person and actually enforcing it are two different things. Sweden doesn’t send people back to countries where they may face persecution, torture, or the death penalty. So, some folk are ordered to leave, but cannot be forced to do so.

https://www.rt.com/news/480662-sweden-deportation-terrorists-criminals/

House Intel Republicans Boycott Hearing, Citing Schiff’s Failure To Hold Hearing On FISA Abuse

In a rare move, the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee boycotted a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning, saying that Chairman Adam Schiff has “strayed” from conducting business relevant to the panel, including by failing to hold a hearing over the Justice Department inspector general’s report on FBI abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“Under your chairmanship, the House Intelligence Committee has strayed far from its mandate of overseeing the Intelligence Community,” the Republicans wrote in a letter to Democrats obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation just before the start of a hearing for the Strategic Technology and Advanced Research Subcommittee.

“In fact, we have gone months at a time in which we’ve hardly held any oversight-related briefings or hearings at all,” they wrote.

All nine Republicans on the panel signed the letter to Schiff, a California Democrat.

“Until the Committee prioritizes oversight activities related to urgent and critical concerns, Republican Members cannot support distractions from our core responsibilities,” they wrote.

They cited Schiff’s failure to hold a hearing to discuss the Justice Department inspector general’s (IG) report released on Dec. 9, 2019 that laid out a series of failures at the FBI during its investigation of the Trump campaign.

The intelligence panel began an investigation similar to the FBI’s in early 2017 into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Neither investigation found evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin.

The FBI and House intelligence Democrats relied heavily on the Democratic-funded Steele dossier for their investigations, but the IG report found significant problems with the salacious document.

The Republicans also slammed Wednesday’s hearing as a “publicity event.”

The topic of the hearing is the development of artificial intelligence for the purposes of national security of the U.S. and allied countries.

Republicans asserted that other House committees are capable of holding hearings on the issue.

“There are numerous Committees in the House of Representatives that may conduct public hearings on emerging science and technology matters; the House Intelligence Committee should focus on critical issues we are uniquely postured to address,” they said.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/12/house-intel-republicans-boycott-schiff-hearing/

Donald Trump Celebrates ‘MAGA’ Trillion Dollar Tech: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon

President Donald Trump on Tuesday celebrated that the top tech companies now had market caps over a trillion dollars, and noted the initials of the companies that spelled MAGA.

“We have four trillion-dollar companies, one is Microsoft, one is Apple, one is Google, one is Amazon,” Trump said. “So you have an M, you have an A, you have a G, you have an A — You have MAGA.”

The president touted the success of tech companies after signing the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Trump showed a sheet of paper with the MAGA letters representing the four top tech companies, joking with Fox News correspondent John Roberts that he should report that on the network.

“You better report that tonight on Fox, that great Fox,” he said. “Not what it used to be John, but it’s still pretty good. Not like the old days John. They put more Democrats on Fox now than they put Republicans, but that’s ok.”

Trump boasted that the stock market had reached record highs during his presidency.

“In the United States, the market is setting a record, we set another record today, it will be the 144th time in a three year period that I’m president,” Trump said.

The president said that a high stock market meant more jobs and better returns for Americans’ 401Ks.

“That’s what it means to me,” he said. “To other people, it means other things, but it means we have a great economy.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/11/donald-trump-celebrates-maga-trillion-dollar-tech-microsoft-apple-google-amazon/

Troll level = Expert

Remembering Climate Alarmists’ False Prophecies

The Guardian newspaper famously predicted back in 1999 that by the year 2020, “Spain will be ridden with malaria, the eastern Mediterranean will be as hot as the Sahara desert, flash floods will swamp parts of the American coastline and there will be almost no snow in the Alps.”

While there is no way to definitively debunk current predictions of a coming climate apocalypse, fortunately we do possess failed past predictions to help put things in perspective.

In a Guardian article titled “Tourist spots could be too hot to handle,” Jamie Wilson — since promoted to “head of International news” at the paper — reflected on a doomsday scenario painted in a report on the effects of global warming.

Profitable tourist destinations could be turned into “holiday horror stories,” found the study, which was commissioned by the World Wild Fund for Nature.

“By 2020, visitors to the Costa del Sol could risk contracting malaria as global warming brings more frequent heatwaves, making the country a suitable habitat for malaria-bearing mosquitoes, while increases in summer temperatures to more than 40C (104F) could make parts of Turkey and Greece no-go areas in July and August,” Mr. Wilson solemnly pronounced.

The report suggested that tour operators and countries which rely on tourism for revenue will need to “take account of the changing climate when planning new resorts or upgrading facilities.”

“The tourism industry could be faced with huge costs as global warming begins to influence decisions about when and where people are going to go on holiday. We must see real action from government to tackle the problem of global climate change now,” warned Ute Collier, the WWF’s head of climate change.

Tourism will not just suffer the negative effects of global warming, the article insisted, it also “contributes to the causes of climate change itself.”

“Air travel is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore increases the risk of continued global warming,” it stated.

The essay went on to describe the disastrous effects of climate change on hotspots ranging from Australia to the Alps to Austria to the Florida everglades.

“Safari holidays in east and southern Africa may also be affected as droughts and changes in temperature alter the distribution of wildlife,” it declared, while “some islands in the Maldives could disappear as they are submerged by rising sea levels.”

And all of this by… 2020.

Kudos to the Guardian for not expunging their archives of its cringeworthy climate predictions. All of this would be nothing more than an anecdotal source of humor, examples of the silliness of a past generation, if newspapers did not make the mistake of continuing to double-down on their commitment to the climate crisis.

At least they have learned one thing from their mistakes: they now project their forecasts sufficiently into the future that their purveyors will assuredly have died before their bluff can been unmasked.

For the unfortunate Mr. Wilson, this is not the case.

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2020/02/12/remembering-climate-alarmists-false-prophecies/

London Times Says Embracing Traditional Gender Roles is a Form of ISIS-Style Extremism

The London Times has become the latest media outlet to suggest that embracing traditional gender roles is a form of extremism with an article that claims so-called ‘trad wives’ are on a par with “ISIS brides.”

“A growing online community of women are rejecting feminism in favour of submission to men. The techniques used to radicalise them are similar to those used to groom Isis brides,” writes Julia Ebner.

Ebner works for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank that partners with national governments, Google and others “to counter hate and extremism in the UK.”

https://governmentslaves.news/2020/02/12/london-times-says-embracing-traditional-gender-roles-is-a-form-of-isis-style-extremism/

FBI Names So-Called ‘White Nationalists’ as ISIS-Level Terror Threat, Plans to Work with Anti-Trump Groups to Profile Them

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that they are classifying “white nationalists” as a terror threat on par with ISIS.

“We’re particularly focused on domestic terrorism, especially racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “Not only is the terror threat diverse, it’s unrelenting.”

Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that white nationalists are considered a “national threat priority” and will devote at least the same amount of resources on them as they do on ISIS and militant Islamic terror groups.

The problem with the FBI’s designation is that ordinary Trump supporters are considered “white nationalists,” not just to the media and Democrat Party but in the eyes of law enforcement as well.

NYPD Intelligence & Counterterrorism Deputy Officer John Miller profiled the Proud Boys, a pro-Trump group that stands up to left-wing ANTIFA domestic terrorists, alongside anti-Semitic hate groups while giving Congressional testimony last month.

“Most of the Proud Boys are not from New York City, but it presented too attractive a target for them when they decided to engage in violence,” Miller said, referring to when Proud Boys members committed acts of self-defense outside of a rally in New York City last year.

Two Proud Boys members were sentenced to years in prison in 2018 for committing self-defense against anti-American ANTIFA terrorists. Because of the work of the FBI, that standard will likely be applied to patriotic activists all throughout the country due to their crackdown against “white nationalism.”

Wray also stated that he would work to track and profile white Americans through a domestic terrorism and hate crimes fusion cell which would “bring together the expertise of domestic terror folks and hate crimes folks.”

“They’re working together to not just focus on the threats that have already happened but to look ahead around the corner to anticipate where else we need to be,” he said.

By “domestic terror folks and hate crimes folks,” Wray means he is going to have his agency rely on far-left, anti-constitutional, anti-Trump organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to do their intelligence gathering for them.

The FBI has a long history of working with the ADL and SPLC. The FBI had a working relationship with the SPLC as of 2018. The ADL even held a summit with the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office just last year specifically on the issues of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.

While pressuring social media providers to censor their political opponents, the ADL has called upon Congress to destroy the Bill of Rights and criminalize right-wing speech in direct violation of the 1st Amendment.

“It’s long overdue for the social media companies to step up and shut down the neo-Nazis on their platforms,” ADL leader Jonathan Greenblatt told Congress last month. “Companies like Twitter and Facebook need to apply the same energy to protecting vulnerable users that they apply to protecting their corporate profits.

“If they won’t answer the problem, you probably need to,” he added in an explicit call to end freedom of speech in America.

The ADL has worked to create nationwide hysteria regarding innocuous symbols such as the “OK” sign and bowl-shaped haircuts based on internet hoaxes and memes. This has resulted in individuals losing their jobs and being targeted by digital lynch mobs on social media out to destroy their lives, including Army and Navy cadets committed to national service.

The ADL has also claimed that anyone who opposes ANTIFA is a potential hate-monger. These will be the “hate crimes folks” telling the FBI who to profile and demonize and levy charges against, as Trump supporters and white Americans are now considered the equivalent of ISIS to the deep state.

https://governmentslaves.news/2020/02/12/fbi-names-so-called-white-nationalists-as-isis-level-terror-threat-plans-to-work-with-anti-trump-groups-to-profile-them/

Want a really deep dive down the rabbit hole?

www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/dulles-cbp-intercepts-dead-birds-passenger-baggage-china

STERLING, Va. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists recently seized a package of tiny dead birds in a passenger’s baggage at Washington Dulles International Airport.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists discovered a package of pet food that consisted of dead tiny birds in a traveler’s baggage from China January 27, 2020

The package of pet food from

China consisted of tiny dead birds.

The traveler arrived on a flight from Beijing, China January 27 and was destined to an address in Prince George’s County, Maryland. During a baggage examination, CBP agriculture specialists discovered a package with pictures of a cat and dog that the passenger said was cat food. The package contained a bunch of unknown small birds, about 2.5 to 3.5 inches in length.

The birds from China are prohibited for import due to the potential threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The avian products were seized on behalf of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and destroyed by incineration, with USDA approval.

Maryland has huge industrial chicken farms… 🤔

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-germany/germany-reports-outbreak-of-h5n8-bird-flu-in-backyard-poultry-oie-idUSKBN204254

PARIS (Reuters) – Germany has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus in a backyard in the southwestern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday.

The virus killed 44 birds out of a flock of 69 in Bretzfeld, in the Baden-Wurttemberg region, the Paris-based OIE said, citing a report from Germany’s food and agriculture ministry.

“All poultry and captive birds have been culled and safely disposed of on Feb. 7, 2020. No poultry, poultry products or captive birds have been dispatched,” it said in the report.

A case of H5N8 bird flu had been confirmed in a wild bird in the eastern German state of Brandenburg in January but no birds on farms were involved, the ministry had then said.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/want-a-really-deep-dive-down-the-rabbit-hole/

Tech/S&P ratio weekly RSI just hit the 2nd most overbought reading of all time (30 years). Just 5 stocks account for 20% of the S&P 500. Many big companies look so unstable

If the Economy Is Good, Why so Many Big US Companies Look so Unstable?

Half of corporate investment-grade bonds are one notch above junk, and a lack of investment in productivity could be to blame.

Baltic Dry Crashes Near All Time Low

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/tech-sp-ratio-weekly-rsi-just-hit-the-2nd-most-overbought-reading-of-all-time-30-years-just-5-stocks-account-for-20-of-the-sp-500-many-big-companies-look-so-unstable/

‘The Hunt’ Gets A New Release Date After Elites Killing Deplorables Plot Sparked Controversy

The social satire movie “The Hunt,” has been given a new release date months after Universal shelved the film amid uproar over the film’s subject matter.

Last August, in the wake of the horrible shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, controversy swirled around “The Hunt” when it was revealed that the movie’s plot would focus on liberal elites hunting down Trump supporters for fun. Fearing that the film would stoke the flames of political hatred and lead to more gun violence, NBC pulled several ads for “The Hunt” from TV and eventually decided to delay the film’s release. Though the plot description sounded grotesque on paper, the trailer indicated something more nuanced by actually depicting the Trump supporters as heroes.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Jason Blum and screenwriter Damon Lindelof said they never intended the film to pick a side and only wanted to satirize the current American political divide.

“None of us were interested in taking sides with this movie,” said Jason Blum. “It’s probably the most judged movie that’s ever existed that everyone who judged it hadn’t seen. We weren’t going to win the conversation around that and so it was our decision, in holding hands with Universal, to take the movie off the schedule.”

Damon Lindelof added that they were ultimately frustrated that nobody fairly judged the movie for what it was.

“For us there was just a fundamental frustration that nobody was talking about the movie,” said Lindelof. “They were all talking about what their perception of the movie was — a perception that was largely formed based on all the events in the aftermath of the horrific weekend before. [But] we really don’t want to be pointing fingers, and more importantly, we don’t want to be wagging fingers at anyone for overreacting or reacting incorrectly. We just felt like the movie was being misunderstood.”

“The Hunt,” which now has a new trailer, will be released on March 13.

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2020/02/the-hunt-gets-new-release-date-after.html

Ties to Israeli spy firm land ex-Obama official in hot water

Former Obama administration official Juliette Kayyem was dropped from an event at Harvard University following controversy over her ties to an Israeli spy firm implicated in the murder of a journalist.

Kayyem, a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, was due to teach a webinar about online harassment and security for female journalists, along with Nancy Gibb, director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Kayyem worked in the US Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.

The center canceled the webinar, scheduled for 6 February, following outrage at Kayyem’s affiliation with NSO Group.

NSO Group last year appointed Kayyem as a senior adviser, as it attempted to whitewash its role in human rights violations.

But as of recently, Kayyem appears no longer to be affiliated with the Israeli firm.

NSO Group is embroiled in spying on and violating the human rights of journalists, activists and government officials and is facing multiple lawsuits and investigations.

One such lawsuit is being brought about by Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi activist and close friend of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Washington Post writer was gruesomely killed and dismembered by a hit squad sent from Saudi Arabia, at the country’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

NSO Group produces a sophisticated cyber weapon called Pegasus which allows its operators to hijack smartphones undetected and extract private data.

Pegasus was apparently used by the Saudi government to intercept conversations between Abdulaziz and Khashoggi.

Ties to spy firm

Ahmed Zidan of the Committee to Protect Journalists likened inviting Kayyem to talk about journalists’ safety to “inviting a coal executive to talk about renewable energy.”

Kayyem told The Verge that she “decided, alone, not to go forward with the program here because I wanted it to be about the participants and not about me.”

It is unclear when exactly Kayyem left her post at NSO Group.

While the Israeli firm told journalist Shannon Vavra that Kayyem’s work for them concluded in 2019, which Kayyem echoed in The Verge, Avi Asher-Schapiro of the Committee to Protect Journalists said she wasn’t taken off the website until after the Harvard controversy.

This is not the first time NSO Group exhibits at the event.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Hong Kong are among the governments that have participated in the fair in the past, The Guardian reported.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/ties-israeli-spy-firm-land-ex-obama-official-hot-water

Philippines TERMINATES Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between Manila and Washington

MANILA – The Philippines has officially notified the United States about the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between Manila and Washington, Philippines’s top diplomat said on Tuesday.

“The Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States has received the notice of termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement. As a diplomatic courtesy there will be no further factual announcements following this self-explanatory development,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin tweeted.

global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/11/WS5e423d5aa310128217276a5a.html

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/philippines-terminates-visiting-forces-agreement-vfa-between-manila-and-washington/

Second incursion on Taiwan by Chinese warplanes in two days!

Even as China grapples with containing the corona virus outbreak, it’s found time to intensify military pressure on Taiwan. Chinese warplanes approached Taiwan on Monday for the second day in a row. Taiwan defense ministry said it scrambled jets as Chinese PLA planes briefly crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait. China then retreated to its side of the line. The day before, China”s aircraft had flown near Taiwan”s East Coast and prompted a rush by Taiwan to intercept.It’s two fighter jets side by side.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/second-incursion-on-taiwan-by-chinese-warplanes-in-two-days-is-this-the-start-of-ww3/

Students in 3,500 Classrooms Across All 50 States Being Taught Revolutionary War Was Fought To Promote Slavery

The New York Times’ 1619 Project — a curriculum that makes the fantastical claim that a primary cause of the Revolutionary War was the colonists’ desire to protect slavery — has been adopted in 3,500 classrooms across all 50 states.

For this reason, some of the nation’s most renowned historians have called for The Times to correct this and other factual errors.

The Pulitzer Center, which is partnering with The Times to promote The 1619 Project, recounted in its 2019 annual report, “Good journalism, innovative educational resources, and deep community engagement are absolutely essential to bridging the divisions that threaten to rip our democracy apart. It is this belief that has driven the Pulitzer Center for the last 14 years.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Times’ lead writer on the project, argued in her introductory essay to it, “The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘all men are created equal’ and ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’

“But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst.”

Hannah-Jones went on to contend “that the year 1619 is as important to the American story as 1776.”

That was the year, she explained, that British colonists in Jamestown purchased 20 to 30 enslaved Africans.

“Conveniently left out of our founding mythology is the fact that one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery,” Hannah-Jones wrote.

The reporter is honest enough to admit that slavery in America predated the nation’s founding by over 150 years.

However, she alleges by 1776, Britain “had grown deeply conflicted over its role in the barbaric institution.”

There were calls to abolish slavery, which “would have upended the economy of the colonies, in both the North and the South,” Hannah-Jones wrote.

Slavery was abolished in Great Britain in 1833 — over a half-century after the founding of the United States.

Also working completely against Hannah-Jones’ narrative is the fact that almost all the states north of the Mason-Dixon Line had voted to abolish slavery by the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

By 1804, all the Northern states had passed legislation ending slavery.

The preposterous notion that protecting slavery was one of the “primary” reasons the American Colonies declared independence is not supported by the documentary evidence from the period, either, as my research for my book “We Hold These Truths” made clear.

Any middle school history student should be taught that the Stamp Act in 1765, followed by the Declaratory Act in 1766, were what began rallying colonists against Mother England.

In the Declaratory Act, Parliament claimed the legislative body held “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America … in all cases whatsoever.”

The rallying cry in the Colonies became, “No taxation without representation.”

http://www.womensystems.com/2020/02/students-in-3500-classrooms-across-all_12.html

Gruesome Details Emerge of Israel’s Torture of Palestinian Prisoners

New allegations have surfaced claiming that Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet or Shabak, is engaged in the brutal torture of Palestinian detainees, despite the practice being against both Israeli and international law. The new accusations, deemed “very credible” by both Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, come amid a recorded spike in the use of torture on Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities.

The latest cases involve three Palestinian men who were detained as part of the extensive manhunt that followed an August 23 bombing that killed an Israeli settler and teenager Rina Shnerb. The three men, living in the occupied West Bank, were detained per Israel’s controversial practice of “administrative detention,” whereby Israel may detain an individual for months or even years without charging them with a crime.

The lawyers and family members of the three main suspects have asserted that all three men suspected of links to the bombing had been tortured to the point of needing hospitalization, with one of them being admitted for kidney failure and 11 broken ribs before subsequently being returned to the custody of Israeli interrogators. Another of the men had his genitals bitten by a security dog while the third man was wheelchair-bound and unrecognizable to his wife when he appeared in a courtroom.

While these three Palestinian men’s experiences are extreme cases, the same Shin Bet investigation also tortured several other detainees in less severe ways but nonetheless left them traumatized. Those detainees were released after weeks in detention and were never charged. Shin Bet also arrested family members of detainees and, in some cases, paraded them in front of detainees in order to create the impression that their wives and children would also undergo the same harsh treatment.

Though the manhunt and resulting torture of Palestinian suspects took place months ago, reporting on the incidents was delayed due to an Israeli court-mandated gag order that was renewed multiple times since it was first issued last September. That gag order, in effect for well over three months, also made court proceedings of the three main suspects in the case closed to the public and prevented family members from attending court, with few exceptions.

A spike in torture

The alleged torturing of prisoners in connection to the August 23 bombing occurred during a period when the use of torture of West Bank Palestinians by Shin Bet spiked dramatically, according to the Palestinian prisoner rights organization Adameer, which issued a report last month that contained hard evidence of “the systematic use of torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian detainees at the Al-Mascobiyya interrogation center.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/02/gruesome-details-emerge-of-israels-torture-of-palestinian-prisoners.html

AIPAC is in a losing battle to preserve Israel’s bipartisan status in America

The latest clash in the American civil war over Israel, which pits liberal progressives against right-wing reactionary nationalists, ended with an apology at the weekend by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Better known as AIPAC, the anti-Palestinian group issued a full apology for posting an advertisement accusing the Democratic Party of anti-Semitism. It has finally realised that its vilification of US lawmakers critical of the Zionist state is actually self-harming.

“Radicals in the Democratic Party are pushing their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies down the throats of the American people,” the lobby group had said on Facebook. “America should never abandon its only democratic ally in the Middle East.” It urged its supporters to sign a letter of protest and not “abandon Israel”.

AIPAC’s fury was provoked by the insistence of senior Democrats that the annual $3.8 billion aid given by the US to the Zionist state should be conditional upon a change in Israeli policy towards the Palestinians. Would-be presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is one target of AIPAC’s ire. The Vermont senator, who is Jewish, has been the most powerful proponent of leveraging US aid to get the Israelis to respect international law.

Sanders is not alone amongst Democrats in expressing growing frustration over Israel’s annexation policy. Elizabeth Warren, another leading presidential contender, has also backed this idea in reply to a question about withholding aid to Israel if it continues building settlements in the occupied West Bank and moves further away from a two-state solution: “All options are on the table,” she insisted. Likewise, Pete Buttigieg, another would-be candidate, echoed his colleagues’ views when asked about withholding US aid to Israel.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200212-aipac-is-in-a-losing-battle-to-preserve-israels-bipartisan-status-in-america/

Trump Conditionally Approves Afghan Peace Deal

US insists Taliban must reduce violence levels this month

The Taliban has publicly requested that the US provide clarification on their stance on the peace process, a deal which by all accounts was finished months ago. The Taliban are interested in where the US is going on the final deal.

It’s reasonable to ask, as since backing out of the last deal, President Trump has tried to add new conditions. Concerningly, Trump is now approving the deal, but only conditionally, and wants the Taliban to unilaterally cut violence in February first.

The US is planning troop cuts either way, but a concrete peace deal would oblige the US to actually leave Afghanistan, and almost certainly would establish a timetable for that. It would put an end to the US changing its mind on the war, as it has time and again over the last 19 years.

For the Taliban, the question is likely not so much about if they can cut violence, but if this time, meeting a Trump condition will net them anything. Trump had previously conditioned the deal on a ceasefire, and when the Taliban agreed he just added more demands.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/02/11/trump-conditionally-approves-afghan-peace-deal/

Feds Lock Down a Dangerous Lawsuit that Threatens To Expose The Clinton Foundation in One of The Biggest Public Thefts in U.S. History

The Feds — DOJ, IRS, FBI — are calling it the most dangerous lawsuit in America, one that threatens to expose the massive Clinton Foundation global fraud of epic proportions — a big reason why the federal bench has sealed the case.

Thomas Paine detailed this little-known lawsuit that has the rogue factions of the federal Intelligence apparatus as well as D.C. elites scurrying and beyond concerned. Paine detailed the controversial case on today’s Thomas Paine Podcast and the Moore Paine Show on Tuesday night. (Listen Below)

Warning: This podcast has some explicit language.

https://truepundit.com/feds-lock-down-a-dangerous-lawsuit-that-threatens-to-expose-the-clinton-foundation-in-one-of-the-biggest-public-thefts-in-u-s-history/

Three-judge panel appointed to determine Netanyahu's fate

The Jerusalem District Court judges will be: Rivkah Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am and Oded Shaham.

A three judge panel for the public corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set on Wednesday.

The Jerusalem District Court judges will be: Rivkah Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am and Oded Shaham.

A decision on the panel had been stalled since the indictment against Netanyahu was filed on January 28. A trial date has still not been set.

Although there was initially greater potential for the trial to open before the March 2 elections, at this point the most likely scenario is a post-election opening for the trial.

Netanyahu officially became the first sitting prime minister in Israel's history to be indicted two weeks ago when Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, just hours after Netanyahu withdrew his immunity request.

Mandelblit announced his final indictment on November 21, but could not file it with the courts until the immunity request process was concluded.

The two-month delay in filing the indictment came from Netanyahu's unusual request for immunity (which most ministers have not requested) and the fact that the Knesset has been out of session for an extended period.

Hours after announcing the indictment on November 21, Mandelblit gave a speech in which he said that it was personally sad for him to indict Netanyahu, who he personally greatly admired in terms of talents, but that he was obligated by the law to do so.

The attorney-general ultimately indicted Netanyahu for bribery in Case 4000, the "Bezeq-Walla! Affair," for breach of public trust in Case 1000, the "Illegal Gifts Affair" and for breach of public trust in Case 2000, the "Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom Affair."

In Case 4000, Netanyahu is accused of involvement in a media bribery scheme in which Walla! owner Shaul Elovitch allegedly gave him positive coverage in exchange for Netanyahu making government policies favoring Elovitch's Bezeq company to the tune of around NIS 1.8 billion.

This is the hardest case for Netanyahu, since he faces accusations by two close former aides turned state witnesses, Shlomo Filber and Nir Hefetz.

In Case 1000, Netanyahu is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in gifts from rich tycoons, mostly from Arnon Milchin, in exchange for a variety of help with business and personal-legal initiatives. The charge itself is for acting in situations in which the prime minister had a conflict of interest, since no actual quid pro quo can be proven.

In Case 2000, Netanyahu was accused of working with Yediot and Yisrael Hayom to reduce the latter's competition with Yediot in exchange for positive coverage for Netanyahu in Yediot. The deal never went through, but the law has crimes of attempted bribery and breach of trust which can apply even if a deal does not go through. Mandelblit was never a fan of Case 2000 but decided he needed to charge Netanyahu with something once they indicted Yediot owner Arnon Nuni Mozes with bribery.

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Three-judge-panel-for-Netanyahu-trial-set-617354

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Huawei News: Chinese Telecom Giant Can Covertly Enter US Networks And Steal Confidential Information, Trump Officials Say

Top Trump officials say they have evidence that Chinese telecom giant Huawei can covertly access wireless networks in the U.S. and around the world

Huawei swiftly shot back at the claims, saying it doesn't even have the capability to penetrate U.S. networks

Germany will soon announce whether it will allow Huawei onto its 5G rollout, after the U.K. said the company would play a "limited role" in its next generation networks

Top officials in the Trump administration say they have concrete evidence that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei can covertly penetrate wireless networks in the U.S. and around the world, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. These "backdoors" were originally intended for law enforcement.

“We have evidence that Huawei has the capability secretly to access sensitive and personal information in systems it maintains and sells around the world,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien said.

“Huawei does not disclose this covert access to its local customers, or the host nation national security agencies,” another senior official said.

The U.S. officials did not provide further details about the "backdoor" access, or specific cases where Huawei has covertly penetrated U.S. networks, but has said that the Chinese company has had this "backdoor" capability for over a decade.

"U.S. allegations of Huawei using lawful interception are nothing but a smokescreen – they don't adhere to any form of accepted logic in the cybersecurity domain. Huawei has never and will never covertly access telecom networks, nor do we have the capability to do so," a Huawei spokesperson said in response.

The U.S. has been trying to convince the U.K. and Germany to ban Huawei from their 5G networks. The U.K. has said it will allow Huawei to have a “limited role” in its 5G rollout, angering the Trump administration.

Germany has said that a decision on the Huawei issue is “imminent.” Reuters reported Tuesday that lawmakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party have written a position paper that advocates tougher regulations on 5G vendors but stops short of a ban on the Chinese telecom giant.

https://www.ibtimes.com/huawei-news-chinese-telecom-giant-can-covertly-enter-us-networks-steal-confidential-2920954