Toyota Postpones Reopening of North America Production Until 11 May

Toyota announced in a news release on Wednesday that it is delaying the reopening of its automobile production operations across all of North America for an additional week until 11 May.

"Based on an extensive review with our supplier and logistics network, Toyota will postpone the ramp-up of its North American manufacturing operations from the week of 4 May to the week of 11 May", the release said.

Toyota explained that it still intends to gradually resume its manufacturing operations in compliance with federal health and safety guidelines, and local and state ordinances.

"The health and safety of our employees and stakeholders remain a top priority. We will continue to follow all safety guidelines and monitor vehicle demand as we carefully ramp up production", the release said.

Toyota has implemented new protocols at all of its North American manufacturing plants to help mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the release added.

On 16 April, Nissan said that its plants in North America will remain closed at least until mid-May due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, extending an earlier target date of 6 May for resuming operations.

On 14 April, another Japanese automaker, Subaru, extended its production shutdown at its factory in Lafayette, Indiana, at least until 8 May.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,005,147 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the US so far, with over 57,500 fatalities registered.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202004301079140249-toyota-postpones-reopening-of-north-america-production-until-11-may/

Pompeo Says: US Mission in North Korea Remains Unchanged Regardless of Leadership

The U.S. mission in North Korea to achieve full and verified denuclearization of the country will not change no matter “what transpires inside of North Korea with respect to their leadership,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press conference on April 29.

The agreement made by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018 needs to be fully implemented, Pompeo said.

The agreement stipulates that the United States would provide “security guarantees” to North Korea and North Korea would completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, but it had not provided any specific details regarding a timeline of denuclearization or methods for disarmament. Further work would be needed to implement the agreement.

The sanctions imposed by the United States on North Korea have not been lifted after reaching the agreement.

“The sanctions will come off when we are sure that the nukes are no longer a factor,” Trump said to media after signing the agreement. He said the verification process would be carried out by a combination of personnel from the United States and the international community.

Today's News Updates

North Korea also promised in the agreement to return the remains of American soldiers it has held onto since the Korean War.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pompeo-says-us-mission-in-north-korea-remains-unchanged-regardless-of-leadership_3332733.html

Illegal Immigrant Father Of 7 Arrested In Florida On 125 Charges Of Child Pornography, Sheriff Says

POLK COUNTY, FLA. — On Monday, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 45-year-old father of seven from Mexico after detectives received a tip that he had been downloading files containing child pornography. Nabor Molina, who has been residing in Lakeland, was charged with 125 enhanced counts of Possession of Child Pornography.

“These images are not just pictures of children without clothes. These videos and images are horrific displays of children being forced to expose their genitals, forced to perform sex acts – images of children being raped,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “Nabor Molina has access to children; at this time in the investigation, it doesn’t appear that any of them are victims, but we will continue to investigate whether he has abused any children he’s had access to. But Molina is a part of a child pornographic exploitation distribution pipeline that victimizes children across the world. His behavior is disgusting.”

The PCSO Computer Crimes Unit began working on the investigation in February 2020 after receiving Cyber TipLine reports from NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children). Those tip reports showed that a Google user (later determined to be Molina) downloaded over 200 video files, with several of them depicting child pornography. Once becoming aware of the illicit files, Google reported them to NCMEC.

Detectives reviewed all of the files and identified 125 video files containing child pornography.

The video files consisted of male and female victims, some as young as 18-36 months, being sexually battered by adults or other children and/or exposed in a lewd manner.

After making a connection between the videos to Molina’s residence, internet service, and cell phone, detectives were able obtain a search warrant for his home.

Early Monday morning, Molina was arrested during a traffic stop, and his cell phone was confiscated. Detectives then served the search warrant at his home. Various electronic storage devices were collected from the residence and will be searched forensically.

Molina admitted to viewing child pornography out of curiosity, and that he accessed it using his WhatsApp account (social media platform).

Nabor Molina was transported to the Polk County Jail. At the time, he was also charged with driving with an expired license. Due to him being in the United States illegally, ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was notified, and a hold for him has been placed.

https://breaking911.com/illegal-immigrant-father-of-7-arrested-in-florida-on-125-charges-of-child-pornography-sheriff-says/

Projection anyone??? UN fantasy

‘Immediate danger’: Half of world’s workforce could lose livelihood due to Covid-19, UN agency warns

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned that around half of the world’s workforce, or 1.6 billion workers, are at imminent risk of losing their livelihood because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In its latest report, the UN agency stated that those hardest hit by the financial effects of the Covid-19 outbreak have been ‘informal economy’ workers, including the self-employed and those on a short-term contract.

“The first month of the crisis is estimated to have resulted in a drop of 60 percent in the income of informal workers globally,” the ILO said of the economic damage already caused by the pandemic.

The deepening crisis in many parts of the world has left more than 436 million businesses facing financial hardship and possible closure, the ILO stated, which will inevitably hurt workers. The report listed the worst-hit sectors as manufacturing, accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, and real estate.

“For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said of the stark impact of an economic dip.

He added that, according to ILO data, there is expected to be a “massive” rise in poverty levels worldwide, unless governments recognize the need to reconstruct their economies around better working practices and “not a return to the pre-pandemic world of precarious work for the majority.”

Since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year, over 3.1 million cases have been confirmed around the world, and more than 216,000 people have died. Drastic lockdowns to limit its spread have taken a dire toll on the global economy, prompting market turmoil and numerous projections of the heavy recession to strike this year.

https://www.rt.com/news/487288-coronavirus-economic-impact-workforce-jobs/

Billionaire-Backed 'Human Rights Watch' Lobbies for Lethal US Sanctions as COVID Crisis Rages

Regime change-hungry HRW is proudly taking credit for crushing new US sanctions on Nicaragua while pushing to escalate Washington’s economic war on Venezuela. The Grayzone presents a deep dive into the “human rights” arm of US empire.

Human Rights Watch, the leading so-called rights organization in the United States, has actively lobbied for Washington to impose suffocating sanctions on leftist governments in Latin America. The group has even praised the Donald Trump administration for ramping up its aggressively destabilizing regime-change measures.

NGOs like Human Rights Watch (HRW) depict targeted sanctions as a more palatable alternative to military action, although these measures are widely recognized by international legal experts to be a form of economic warfare that have led to the deaths of many thousands of civilians, destroyed the livelihoods of countless people, and devastated entire nations’ economies.

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, HRW operatives took credit for new sanctions the Trump administration had imposed on Nicaragua’s democratically elected leftist government. Among those cheering on the escalation of economic warfare was HRW Australia development and outreach manager Stephanie McLennan, who chirped that the fresh round of sanctions were “great news!”

Unilateral sanctions are designed to cripple the economies of countries whose governments are being targeted for regime change, locking them out of the US-dominated financial system and collectively punishing the entire civilian population, depriving them of basic human rights so that Washington can install a more friendly regime. The US government routinely implements these coercive measures without the backing of the United Nations or other international bodies.

Rather than challenge the unilateral economic war waged across the globe by the US, Human Rights Watch is taking credit for the escalation of Washington’s assault on Nicaragua – and at the very moment when the small country of just 6 million people grapples with the deadly Covid-19 outbreak, and an arduous peace and reconciliation process.

In 2018, the Trump administration backed a bloody coup attempt in Nicaragua, in which right-wing extremists shot, tortured, and killed state security forces and leftist Sandinista activists, burning down buildings and setting people on fire, in hopes of destabilizing the government. When the putsch fizzled out, opposition groups funded by the US government turned to economic warfare and sanctions as the next weapon in the regime-change arsenal.

Purported “human rights” organizations in Nicaragua that work closely with the right-wing opposition played a major role in this coup attempt, selling outlandish, fabricated statistics that were eagerly regurgitated by the corporate media and international NGOs like HRW.

https://russia-insider.com/en/billionaire-backed-human-rights-watch-lobbies-lethal-us-sanctions-covid-crisis-rages/ri29808

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>>8967883

Like Roth, HRW’s billionaire sponsor has taken a hardline position against China, calling it a “mortal danger” to neoliberal capitalist democracies, pouring money into groups to try to weaken and destabilize Beijing and remove the Communist Party from power.

Wall Street’s favorite human rights group speaks for its billionaire patrons

Thanks to the generous patronage of billionaire oligarchs like Soros, HRW operatives hobnob with fellow elites in the organization’s opulent office space in New York City’s Empire State Building. From these lavish headquarters, HRW operatives look down from their three entire floors as they plot ways to turn up the heat on foreign governments they consider “authoritarian.”

The Empire State Building in fact honored these tenants in 2013 by turning “a bright blue to honor Human Rights Watch.” Four years earlier, HRW officials sent an indignant open letter to the building’s management condemning its decision to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

HRW’s neoliberal political orientation reflects the ideology of its billionaire sponsors. The group has a very limited understanding of human rights that excludes the right of colonized peoples to resist their occupiers with force or the right of workers to organize and form a union.

HRW is muted in its concern for inhabitants of the Global North, saying far less about Black Americans brutalized and murdered by US police than it does about the repression of participants in NATO-backed color revolutions in Eastern Europe.

While it actively undermines socialist governments and their worker-based constituencies, HRW has collaborated closely with corporate America. In fact, it celebrated its 40th anniversary on Wall Street in March 2018, ringing the bell that opens the NASDAQ stock exchange.

“At Human Rights Watch we know business prospers where human rights & the rule of law are protected,” tweeted Minky Worden, its director of global initiatives, without a hint of irony.

Soros is not the only billionaire signing checks for HRW. The group has also come under fire for taking huge sums from a Saudi oligarch as apparent hush-money after documenting the abuse of his employees. Ken Roth personally oversaw the $470,000 grant from the Saudi billionaire, and accepted responsibility for the highly questionable decision only after it was publicly exposed.

While conservatives have on occasion attacked Human Rights Watch because of its links to liberal organizations and its criticisms of Israel’s atrocities in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, HRW has paid tribute to one of the most militaristic senators to serve in Congress.

When Sen. John McCain died in 2018, HRW lionized the Republican politician, a stalwart champion of American wars of aggression, as a “compassionate voice” whose legacy was defined by his supposed “defense of human rights.”

In the same vein, HRW refused to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, which was blatantly illegal under international law. (Only after the start of the Iraq War did the NGO finally speak out, when it was safe — and guaranteed to not have a tangible impact.)

Similarly, HRW has repeatedly declined to call for an end to the US-backed Saudi war on Yemen, even while it has documented the Washington-backed Saudi forces’ horrendous atrocities in the country.

As it shrinks from vocal opposition to Washington’s regime-change wars, HRW actively lobbies the US and other Western governments to impose sanctions on nations it claims are rights violators.

HRW insists the sanctions it lobbies for do not hurt civilians because they are “targeted” against government officials and institutions. The best evidence debunking this claim is the reality for inhabitants of Venezuela and Iran, where US sanctions have made lives hell for much of the population, particularly the poor, by locking these countries out of the international financial system, depriving them of the assets they need to import food, medicine, and medical equipment.

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>>8967921

The only other article Megan Monteleone has listed in her bio at HRW is another anti-Sandinista screed published in Infobae, a staunchly right-wing website based in Argentina and owned by a rightist oligarch. Like the opposition media outlets in Nicaragua, Infobae describes Nicaragua’s elected government a “regime” and “dictatorship” in its reports.

Monteleone’s obsessive hatred of Nicaragua’s leftist government is apparent on her Twitter account, where almost all of her tweets are anti-Nicaragua posts. Apparently other countries in Latin America, let alone the rest of the world, are not violating human rights.

HRW colleagues joined Monteleone in praising the new Trump administration sanctions on Nicaragua, including Emma Daly, the acting deputy executive director for media at Human Rights Watch, and Jan Kooy, HRW’s deputy European media director.

HRW lobbies for more civilian-killing sanctions on Nicaragua (and Venezuela)

This was far from the first time Human Rights Watch clamored for sanctions on Nicaragua. In fact, the “rights” group has actively lobbied on behalf of the country’s tiny right-wing opposition.

HRW Americas division director José Miguel Vivanco has shown a blatant bias against left-wing countries in the region, along with an obsession with undercutting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

In June 2019, Vivanco testified before the US Congress, lobbying the legislative body “to impose targeted sanctions —including asset freezes— against senior Nicaraguan officials.”

In its official press release on the congressional testimony, HRW stated clearly, “The United States Congress should press the executive branch to impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against senior Nicaraguan government officials.”

HRW made no mention whatsoever of the extreme violence carried out by the Nicaraguan right-wing opposition in its coup attempt, blaming all of the deaths and injuries on the government instead.

The so-called rights organization also praised the Trump administration’s previous imposition of sanctions on Nicaragua, declaring in its press release, “Human Rights Watch supports the successful application of the Global Magnitsky Act in July and December 2018, when the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on five Nicaraguans implicated in human rights abuses and corruption.”

HRW went a step further and urged US members of Congress to meet with their leaders of Nicaragua’s US-backed opposition: “Human Rights Watch also recommended that the US Congress: … Meet regularly with human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and the opposition from Nicaragua who come to Washington to maintain balance in its understanding of the situation in Nicaragua,” the group stated.

Just a week after the congressional testimony, Human Rights Watch and Vivanco revived their calls for the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Nicaragua in a report titled “Crackdown in Nicaragua: Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Prosecutions of Protesters and Opponents.” The paper completely whitewashed the coup attempt, uncritically echoing the dubious and rumors narratives of the right-wing opposition.

In a new press release accompanying this report, HRW expanded its call for sanctions not just from the US government, but also from other governments in Europe and Latin America.

“Governments in the Americas and Europe should impose targeted sanctions against top Nicaraguan authorities,” HRW wrote.

This “rights” organization provided a list of Nicaraguan government officials who “should be subjected to targeted sanctions, such as travel bans and assets freezes,” including President Daniel Ortega and numerous top police and security officials. Most of these Nicaraguan officials had or have subsequently been sanctioned by the US government.

In both English and Spanish, Vivanco amplified this demand for more economic war.

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"What The F**k": In Expletive-Laced Rant, Elon Musk Blasts "Fascist, Undemocratic" Shelter-In-Place Orders

It has been almost exactly two years since Elon Musk's infamous conference call meltdown when the Tesla CEO snapped at RBC analyst Joseph Spak for asking "boring bonehead questions" during the Q1 2018 earnings call. Today, Musk did it again only this time instead of raging at a "bonehead" question, the notoriously volatile CEO went off on a bizarre tirade, hammering an issue he has expressed substantial displeasure with in recent days: the inability to open up the Tesla Fremont factory Calilfornia's shelter-in-place orders.

Just hours after the Tesla CEO tweeted his best Donald Trump impression to date, screaming "FREE AMERICA NOW" clearly displeased with the ongoing state of affairs in the US virus-stricken nation…

… Elon held the Tesla earnings call where toward the end, increasingly angry, Musk unleashed a 5-minute rant complete with an f-bomb in which the CEO doubled down on his stance against the shelter-in-place orders that have gripped the United States economy in recent weeks, warning that the factory shutdowns are a "serious risk" to the electric automaker's business.

"It will cause great harm, not just to Tesla, but to many companies," Musk said on the call. "And while Tesla will weather the storm, there are many companies that will not. Everything people have worked for their whole life is being destroyed in real time."

"It's breaking people's freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why they came to America or built this country. What the fuck. Excuse me. Outrage. Outrage."

"Frankly, I would call it forcible imprisoning of people in their homes against all of, their constitutional rights, in my opinion" he said, and then slammed the government imposed shutdown of all non-essential businesses as undemocratic and downright "fascist."

"If somebody wants to stay in their house, that's great and they should be able to," he said. "But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic, this is not freedom, give people back their goddamn freedom."

Of course, neither the California or federal shelter-in-place guidelines penalize those who go outside with arrest. That did not prevent Musk from concluding that "the people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry." What he meant is that he is angry because orders prevent Tesla from building cars at the Fremont facility while the shelter in place order is active.

The billionaire first said panic about the coronavirus "is dumb" on March 6, as the US first began reporting cases that have now topped 1 million. His eagerness to return back to business reemerged on March 19 when he said that "based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/what-fk-conference-call-meltdown-elon-musk-blasts-fascist-shelter-place-orders

Amid pandemic, Pentagon pushes ‘Russia more dangerous than ISIS’ fear porn – and not for the first time

Perhaps desperate to distract Americans whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus, US Africa Command is trying to argue for a return of its troops to Libya – because Russia is a “bigger” threat than Islamic State terrorism.

While the headline in Wednesday’s Washington Examiner literally spells out “Russian presence in Libya more dangerous than ISIS, says US Africa Command,” that quote does not actually appear inside the story. It is instead paraphrased by Abraham Mahshie, who appears to be the outlet’s Pentagon reporter.

Nor is it made by the actual AFRICOM, but rather an unnamed “defense official.” The article does quote an AFRICOM spokeswoman at one point, to make a general observation about Russian private security contractors operating in Libya.

Topping it all off are “expert” observations by a scholar who spoke at a forum organized by CSIS, a Washington, DC think tank notoriously hawkish on Russia.

The anonymous Pentagon official claims that Russia’s interests in Libya are “mineral extraction” – meaning, oil – and strategic port access “on the southern flank of NATO.” The CSIS lecturer concurs, saying Russia is interested in both Libya and Syria for the sake of their oil, and that contractors working for Wagner – a private security company repeatedly accused of presence in both countries – are providing President Vladimir Putin with plausible deniability.

The whole thing reads like a mishmash of opinion disguised as fact and impossible-to-verify insinuations by nameless sources, all strung together to look like Moscow has nefarious designs on Libya that simply require AFRICOM to ride in to the rescue like a white knight.

“We believe that there will be a need in the future, an opportunity for us to get back into Libya again, but it’s a little difficult to answer that given the current crisis ongoing there and uncertainties that we're seeing in Libya,” the anonymous official is quoted as saying, just after Mahshie puts into his mouth the claim that “Russia’s presence in Libya is even more dangerous than the threat posed by ISIS remnants operating in the south.”

Even a casual observer of events in the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade, however, can quickly conclude this is a severe case of psychological projection. It was the US and NATO “humanitarian intervention” that turned Libya into a chaotic hellhole back in 2011, encouraging the jihadist ‘rebels’ to overthrow the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Some of those rebels later joined Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria or closer to home. Less than a year after the ‘revolution’ these militants killed four Americans – including a US ambassador and two armed contractors – in Benghazi.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/487287-africom-libya-russia-isis/

DS goes full retard

Former FBI General Counsel James Baker Has Flipped! Durham is Building Conspiracy Case on All of Those Who Lied to the Court!

Former US Attorney Joe diGenova was on the Howie Carr Show this week and he provided some more inside information regarding General Flynn’s case and the unraveling of the coup to remove President Trump from office.

ormer US Attorney was on with Howie Carr again this week and he dropped some more bombshells about the current investigation of the investigators involved in removing President Trump and his team from office.

diGenova discussed the Durham investigation and said at the 5:30 mark that Durham is building a conspiracy case and anyone who lied to the court will be indicted for obstruction of justice charges:

The bottom line is this, it’s unfolding and what’s happening is, what Durham is actually doing is he’s painting a picture and not everyone of these acts is going to be a specific separate crime. But they are going to be, what’s called overt acts in a conspiracy. One to defraud the United States government. One to deny the civil rights of Trump and Flynn and Page and a bunch of other people.

At the 8:55 mark deGenova drops another bomb when discussing the notes that were released today that show the government was actively working to frame General Flynn:

diGenova: You know Baker is now working with Durham. James Baker the former General Counsel.

Carr: He’s flipped?

diGenova: Who was a target, is now understandably cooperating because he was looking at a boat load of criminal charges. Once these notes were discovered, and by the way, these were the notes that [FBI Director] Chris Wray and Dana Boente did not want turned over.

At the 10:30 mark, diGenova discussed the General Flynn case that is falling apart for the Mueller gang as we speak. Hero General Flynn was set up and framed by Obama’s Deep State. He was illegally spied on and coerced into a guilty plea by the Mueller gang and his then attorneys by threatening to arrest and indict his son. Neither Flynn or his son committed any crimes.

During a status hearing before his sentencing date, the judge overseeing his case went crazy, accusing General Flynn of treason. deGenova explains:

I have no idea what’s in the mind of Judge Emmet Sullivan who used to seem like he was a really disinterested kind of noble guy. He proved that right in the Ted Stevens case. But his comments during the final status hearing before he set a sentencing date for General Flynn were so awful and so fundamentally stupid and we found out, we did an analysis, my Victoria and I did an analysis of the statements he made on the record. We got the transcript.

Remember when he came out and he accused the General of committing treason and started asking him a series of questions that the prosecutors, who were fumbling, they didn’t know how to answer him? He said in a series of statements, the judge did, exact words, line for line that Rachel Maddow had said the night before on her show when commenting on the upcoming Flynn hearing. It’s scary and if that’s what this guy is looking at before he comes out on the bench, he came out after a break and apologized for using the word treason, but his conduct since then has been bizarre. I don’t know whether the guy’s sick, old or not ready for prime time anymore. It seems to be a disease that’s prominent in Washington DC. Biden can’t talk. Pelosi can’t talk. The judge in the Flynn case can’t talk. It’s amazing.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/breaking-former-fbi-general-counsel-james-baker-flipped-durham-building-conspiracy-case-lied-court/