Mi-8 military helicopter crash lands near Moscow, casualties reported

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The crew of the Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian aerospace forces that crash landed near Moscow has died, the Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday.

"A Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian aerospace that was on a training flight crash landed 20 kilometers of the settlement of Klin, Moscow region, in a desolate location at about 20:00 Moscow time on May 19. The crew died of injuries," the ministry said.

"According to preliminary data, the crash might have been caused by a technical failure," it said, adding that there were no broadside munitions onboard.

https://tass.com/emergencies/1158229

Mi-8 helicopters during the main stage of the Centre - 2019 strategic exercises at the Donguz training ground

Russian Mi-8 Military Helicopter Crash Kills Three in Moscow Region

According to Russia's Defence Ministry, the accident happened at around 8 p.m., local time.

A Russian Mi-8 military helicopter crash-landed outside Klin, in the Moscow region, on 19 May at around 8 p.m. local time, the country's defence ministry said. The helicopter crew of three died of their injuries.

"The entire crew of the aircraft, consisting of three people, died during the crash of the Mi-8 helicopter," a spokesman for the emergency services said.

The search team found both flight data recorders at the crash site, the spokesman said.

"Both black boxes were discovered — a flight data recorder and an on-board voice recorder," he said, adding that both black boxes were in satisfactory condition.

Following the incident, a commission of the Russian Aerospace Forces' command was deployed to the scene.

No further details were immediately available.

The Mi-8 helicopter made a hard landing on Tuesday evening while performing a training flight some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city of Klin. The flight was being carried out without live ammunition. According to preliminary information, the crash could have be caused by a technical malfunction.

https://sputniknews.com/russia/202005191079357010-russias-military-helicopter-mi-8-crash-lands-in-moscow-region/

‘She’s a Sick Woman with Mental Problems’ – President Trump Hits Back at Pelosi’s “Morbidly Obese” Comment

Pelosi on Monday evening raised concerns about President Trump taking hydroxychloroquine because of his age (73) and weight.

“I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group, and in his, shall we say, weight group: ‘Morbidly obese,’ they say,” Pelosi said to Anderson Cooper Monday evening.

A reporter on Tuesday asked about Speaker Pelosi’s “morbidly obese” comment.

President Trump hit back: “I don’t respond to her. I think she’s a waste of time…Pelosi is a sick woman. She’s got a lot of problems a lot of mental problems.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/sick-woman-mental-problems-president-trump-hits-back-pelosis-morbidly-obese-comment-video/

CNN Gives Gov. Cuomo A Pass On Disastrous NY Nursing Home Policy

You probably haven’t seen them (c’mon, who watches CNN), but every week, CNN host Chris Cuomo interviews his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They’re nauseating segments, with the two brothers claiming they make the best spaghetti or asserting that mom loved them most. Bleck.

But one thing Chris never does is get into his brother’s response to the coronavirus, which has been disastrous.

“While many are blaming Cuomo’s policies for the high death toll, one place you won’t hear any questions about it is on CNN, where experts point out the governor is instead lobbed softball questions during playful interviews with his younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo,” Fox News reports.

“The governor’s younger brother’s show on CNN has instead been the showcase for playful banter between the siblings. Governor Cuomo has been interviewed on CNN at least 19 times since March 8, with his younger brother conducting nine of them,” Fox says.

Social media has taken note.

“Chris Cuomo just interviewed his brother, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo on CNN. It was… interesting,” wrote one Twitterer.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/cnn-gives-gov-cuomo-pass-disastrous-ny-nursing-home-policy/

Trump Orders "Sweeping Emergency Deregulation Effort" To Loosen Restrictions On Telemedicine, Small Business

Just hours after Democratic Senators on the Banking Committee (including Elizabeth Warren, back on Capitol Hill and quietly campaigning to be Joe Biden's VP pick) finished castigating Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for purportedly allowing corporations far too many concessions in the 'PPP' and the other lending programs, President Trump said moments ago that he would sign an executive order to continue his push to cut more regulations to bolster economic growth.

The Washington Examiner reported shortly before the announcement that Trump was ordering "a sweeping emergency deregulation effort" to help jump-start the economy.

President Trump is ordering a sweeping emergency deregulation effort Tuesday to jump-start the economic recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and directing federal agencies not to “over-enforce” regulations against small businesses that are working to bounce back, The Washington Times has learned.

Mr. Trump is signing an executive order during a Cabinet meeting to direct federal agencies to use rapidly all emergency and “good cause” authorities to find regulations that can be rescinded or temporarily waived to promote job creation and economic growth.

The president is expected to say that the nation is fighting a crisis "not by grabbing more power for the government, but by giving it to the American people."

When Trump signs the order tonight, he'll ask federal agencies to review any "emergency" changes to regulation - particularly regulations impacting small businesses - and make permanent as many cuts as they can.

He’ll say that deregulation drove historic economic growth before the pandemic struck, and deregulation will bring the economy back stronger than ever. The president is also asking federal regulators not to crack down on small companies struggling to abide by the rules during the recovery.

"Where small businesses are working hard to comply with the law, I am asking agencies to recognize those efforts and not over-enforce where a business or organization has tried in good faith to comply with the law,” the president will say, according to prepared remarks.

"Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the American people are the ones who are going to bring this economy roaring back, and the government should not be tying their hands with red tape."

The decision is designed to bolster growth in telemedicine and even speed up transportation of livestock, senior administration officials said.

Senior administration officials said the action could speed the growth of telemedicine, for example, and accelerate pending transportation rules to aimed at shipping LNG by rail and more efficiently transporting livestock and other food products by truck.

Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said federal agencies have taken more than 600 temporary deregulatory actions to fight the pandemic, and now the administration will move to make permanent “any deregulation possible” to boost the economy.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-orders-sweeping-emergency-deregulation-effort-loosen-restrictions-telemedicine

Declassified Susan Rice email shows Comey suggested 'sensitive' info on Russia not be shared with Flynn

Former FBI Director James Comey suggested to then-President Barack Obama in a January 2017 meeting that the National Security Council [NSC] might not want to pass "sensitive information related to Russia" to then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, according to a newly declassified email that Flynn's predecessor sent herself on Inauguration Day.

The note from Susan Rice was declassified by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and transmitted to the Justice Department. Fox News obtained a copy Tuesday from GOP Sen. Ron Johnson's office, which had sought access to the document.

The email Rice sent to herself on Jan. 20, 2017, documented a Jan. 5 Oval Office meeting with Obama and others, during which he provided guidance on how law enforcement needed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. Parts of it were released previously, but the section on Comey's response had been classified as "TOP SECRET" until now.

The section showed that Comey affirmed to Obama he was proceeding "by the book," and went on to discuss concerns about Flynn's known conversations with Russia's ambassador at the time – conversations that would play a role later in the criminal case against Flynn.

Rice continued: "From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian Ambassador [Sergey] Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information. President Obama asked if Comey was saying that the NSC should not pass sensitive information related to Russia to Flynn."

RIce then wrote, "Comey replied, 'potentially.' He added that he has no indication thus far that Flynn has passed classified information to Kislyak, but he noted that 'the level of communication is unusual.'"

Republicans have zeroed in on the Rice email amid heightened questions over the handling of the Russia probe and top-level awareness inside the Obama administration.

Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had requested the Trump administration declassify Rice's entire email late Monday.

Rice’s email to herself was first flagged in 2018 by Grassley, the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the current chairman. The email was partially unclassified at the time and appeared to detail the Jan. 5, 2017, meeting, which included Obama, Rice, Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-Vice President Joe Biden.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/susan-rice-email-declassified-release-is-imminent-source

CABAL LEAKS

Leaked Pentagon memo warns of 'real possibility' of COVID-19 resurgence, vaccine not coming until summer 2021

The Defense Department should prepare to operate in a "globally-persistent" novel coronavirus (COVID-19) environment without an effective vaccine until "at least the summer of 2021," according to a draft Pentagon memo obtained by Task & Purpose.

"We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19," reads the memo, authored for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper but not yet bearing his signature.

"Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year."

Despite its grim forecast, the draft document lays out a framework for the U.S. military's proverbial reopening, which includes the resumption of training exercises, increased operational tempo, and the repositioning of forces and supplies to fight the global pandemic.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the document was outdated but declined to provide more specifics.

The memo was prepared by Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, and is intended to update previous guidance issued by Esper on April 1, 2020. It's unclear if Esper has seen the memo.

The document has not been officially released, and could see changes since being circulated among the military services at the beginning of May for feedback, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.

“All indications suggest we will be operating in a globally-persistent COVID-19 environment in the months ahead,” the memo reads. “This will likely continue until there is wide-scale immunity, through immunization, and some immunity post-recovery from the virus.”

The Pentagon framework for operations in a "persistent COVID-19 environment" relies on a number of assumptions, including the chance of successive waves of infection, continued shortages of personal protective equipment, and a lack of a viable treatment or vaccine for COVID-19 until at least next summer.

More waves of infection will occur “in clusters” that will coincide with the seasonal flu season, the memo suggests, while testing “will not provide 100% assurance of the absence” of the virus.

The planning framework detailed in the draft memo also calls for an increase in testing and surveillance, expanded contract tracing capabilities, and the use of a registry “to track and closely monitor outcomes of those infected with COVID-19.”

The memo stands in contrast to more optimistic assessments given by Trump administration officials, including Esper, who said Friday the Pentagon would "deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad."

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-pentagon-memo

Professor Karol Sikora: ‘Fear is More Deadly Than COVID-19’

Virus ‘getting tired’:

– In the past two weeks, the virus is showing signs of petering out

– It’s as though the virus is ‘getting tired’, almost ‘getting bored’

– It’s happening across the world at the same time

Existing herd immunity:

– The serology results around the world (and forthcoming in Britain) don’t necessarily reveal the percentage of people who have had the disease

– He estimates 25-30% of the UK population has had Covid-19, and higher in the group that is most susceptible

– Pockets of herd immunity help already explain the downturn

– Sweden’s end result will not be different to ours

– lockdown versus no lockdown

Fear more deadly than the virus:

– When the history books are written, the fear will have killed many more people than the virus, including large numbers of cancer and cardiological patients not being treated

– We should have got the machinery of the NHS for non-corona patients back open earlier

Masks and schools:

– Evidence on masks is just not there either way so it should be an ‘individual decision’

– We should move to 1m social distancing which means restaurants and bars could reopen

– More schools should reopen in June as ‘children are not the transmitters of this virus’

– We should be getting back to the ‘old normal’ not a ‘new normal’

https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/05/19/professor-karol-sikora-fear-is-more-deadly-than-covid-19/

>>9242490

Pentagon memo contradicts Esper’s year-end coronavirus vaccine goal, per report

Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared Friday that a government task force charged with developing a COVID-19 vaccine would have a widely available injection by the end of the year. But a leaked Pentagon memo shows that behind the scenes, senior leadership have been planning for the possibility that the services could be contending with coronavirus until well into next year.

The memo, first reported by Task and Purpose, warns of not only a resurgence of the virus, but the “real possibility” that a viable vaccine won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.”

“Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year," the memo reads, though it doesn’t bear Esper’s signature.

Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, prepared the memo, Task and Purpose reported.

“We can confirm we continue to develop plans that address operating in the COVID-19 environment,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Garver told Military Times on Tuesday, though he could not confirm the specific memo draft. “Senior DoD officials have discussed the development of a plan to reduce Health Protection Conditions around the world and continue the 2020 summer move cycle safely. The plans have not been approved by senior DoD leaders yet, and we’re not going to discuss what might be in the final version of those plans.”

The memo details requirements for expanded testing, surveillancing and contact tracing procedures, while at the same time preparing for new outbreaks, shortages of personal protection equipment and insufficient immunity to the virus into summer 2021.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/19/pentagon-memo-contradicts-secdefs-year-end-coronavirus-vaccine-goal-per-report/

Michael Flynn Asks D.C. Circuit to Dismiss Case, Replace Judge

Michael Flynn’s lawyer filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, seeking a “writ of mandamus” to compel a federal district court to dismiss the charges against him, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested last week.

Sidney Powell, the attorney who took over Flynn’s case after his previous lawyers had negotiated a plea bargain, filed the petition, which also asks the D.C. Circuit to transfer the case out of the hands of Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, and to cancel his request for amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs arguing against dismissal.

Sullivan, who had previously asked prosecutors whether Flynn should have been charged with treason, balked at letting the case go. He invited amicus briefs from outside groups, including an anti-Trump group calling itself “Watergate Prosecutors.” He also appointed retired judge John Gleeson to argue against dismissal and in favor of finding Flynn in criminal contempt of court, after Gleeson co-wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing against dropping charges.

Those moves drew immediate objection from Powell, who has now filed for a writ of mandamus. Her filing states:

Petitioner respectfully requests that this Court order the district court immediately to (1) grant the Justice Department’s Motion to Dismiss; (2) vacate its order appointing amicus curiae; and (3) reassign the case to another district judge as to any further proceedings.

…

The district court has disregarded the constitutional imperative of a “case and controversy” and the “separation of powers” that invests the power to prosecute solely in the executive branch. In the American system, the parties “frame the issues for decision” while the courts take the role of “neutral arbiter of matters the parties present.”

…

The district court has no authority to adopt the role of prosecutor or change the issues in the case by inviting or appointing amici to perform the investigation or prosecution that the court deems appropriate. Less than two weeks ago, in Sineneng-Smith, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a similar usurpation by the Ninth Circuit in an opinion authored by a venerable alumna of this Court [Ruth Bader Ginsburg].

…

The district court order appointing an amicus is both unauthorized and bespeaks a disturbing lack of appreciation of the court’s limited role when confronted with a motion to dismiss by the Government in a criminal case.

…

The Government, which has sole authority to dismiss this prosecution, has presented a well-documented motion explaining its reasons. The Government misconduct and Brady violations provide a more-than- sufficient basis for dismissal. An innocent man has been the target of a vendetta by politically motivated officials at the highest level of the FBI. The egregious Government misconduct, and the three-year abuse of General Flynn and his family, cry out for ending this ordeal immediately and permanently.

The district judge’s orders reveal his plan to continue the case indefinitely, rubbing salt in General Flynn’s open wound from the Government’s misconduct and threatening him with criminal contempt.

A footnote observes that Flynn’s original guilty plea was taken by a different judge, Rudolph Contreras, who happens to be friends with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the investigation and procession of Flynn.

On Monday, Gleeson filed a motion with Judge Sullivan asking to have until June 10 to submit his amicus brief, meaning that the Flynn case could extend well into the summer unless his new motion were to be granted.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/19/michael-flynn-asks-d-c-circuit-to-dismiss-case-replace-judge/

China’s ‘Free’ Coronavirus Vaccine Offer Follows Years of Scandals

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping promised the world free Chinese coronavirus vaccines, paid for by Beijing, during Monday’s World Health Assembly session. Xi made this vow after years of scandals at home fueled by the corrupt and incompetent manufacturing of much simpler vaccines for diseases such as polio.

China’s vaccines are so notorious that state-owned media outlets openly admit Chinese parents prefer foreign-made products. Xi’s regime claims to have cracked down on manufacturers intentionally developing watered-down vaccines that do not produce inoculation after one such company, Changsheng Biotechnology, produced close to one million substandard vaccines, distributed to hundreds of thousands of children in the country. The Changsheng scandal, which resulted in widespread protests, preceded a number of similar cases with other pharmaceutical companies in the country, and evidence suggests Xi directed more potent efforts towards silencing outraged parents than getting faulty vaccines out of Chinese clinics.

China’s recent history producing watered-down, dangerous vaccines did not factor into any discussion of a future vaccine for the Chinese coronavirus during the World Health Assembly, conducted virtually this year as a result of the pandemic. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) instead offered Xi Jinping one of the first available speaking positions on Monday to make his statement unchallenged.

“In China, after making painstaking efforts and enormous sacrifice, we have turned the tide on the virus and protected the life and health of our people,” Xi told the W.H.O. audience, failing to mention mounting reports of surges in cases in multiple provinces of China, including Hubei, where the pandemic began.

“All along, we have acted with openness, transparency, and responsibility. We have provided information to the W.H.O. and the relevant countries in the most timely fashion,” Xi continued – another statement that did not address the fact that Beijing admitted to destroying early samples of the virus and has launched a campaign to promote the conspiracy theory that the virus originated in America.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/05/19/chinas-free-coronavirus-vaccine-offer-follows-years-vaccine-scandals/

Newspaper Director, Bodyguard Die in Mexican Border State Shooting

The director of a newspaper publishing group and a police officer died this past weekend in a shooting in Sonora. The attack comes as the region suffers from a dramatic increase in violence.

Jorge Miguel Armenta, the director of newspapers from the Obson publishing group, died in a shooting in Obregon, Sonora. According to Proceso Magazine, Armenta was leaving a restaurant at the time. The publisher was already under police protection. The officers tried to fight off the attackers, but one died and a second sustained injuries.

Cartel gunmen near Caborca also tried to shoot down a state police helicopter. Proceso published cell phone footage of the attack from within the helicopter. An officer can be seen fighting back with a rifle.

Also in Sonora, a former mayor from Magdalena died after his vehicle was caught in a highway shootout. Alfonso Robles, who hailed from Mexico’s Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), and another individual with him died after their vehicle was struck several times.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/05/19/newspaper-director-bodyguard-die-in-mexican-border-state-shooting/

Washington’s tall tale of Iranian-Al Qaeda alliance based on questionably sourced book ‘The Exile’

A disinformation campaign aimed to justify the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by painting him and Iran as willing enablers of al-Qaeda. The propaganda operation relied heavily on a shoddily sourced book, “The Exile.”

By Gareth Porter

The U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani in January touched off a new wave of disinformation about the top Iranian major general, with Trump administration allies branding him a global terrorist while painting Iran as the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Much of the propaganda about Soleimani related to his alleged responsibility for the killing of American troops in Iraq, along with Iran’s role in Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.

But a second theme in the disinformation campaign, which has been picked up by mainstream outlets like the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, was the claim that Soleimani deliberately unleashed al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s campaign to kill Shiites in Iraq. That element of the propaganda offensive was the result of the 2017 publication of “The Exile,” a book by British journalists Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, which spun a new version of the familiar U.S. propaganda line of a supposed Iranian terror alliance with al-Qaeda.

Levy and Scott-Clark introduced the theme of secret collusion between the two open adversaries with an article in the The Sunday Times in early 2018, dramatically entitled “Tehran in devil’s pact to rebuild al‑Qaeda.” Soleimani, they claimed, “first offered sanctuary to bin Laden’s family and al-Qaeda military leaders,” then proceeded to “build them a residential compound at the heart of a military training center in Tehran.”

But those two sentences represented a grotesque distortion of Iran’s policy toward the al-Qaeda personnel fleeing from Afghanistan into Iran. Virtually every piece of concrete evidence, including an internal al-Qaeda document written in 2007, showed that Iran agreed to take in a group of al-Qaeda refugees with legal passports that included members of bin Laden’s family and some fighters and middle- and lower-ranking military cadres – but not Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda military leaders — and only temporarily and under strict rules forbidding political activity.

The crucial fact that Levy and Scott-Clark conveniently failed to mention, moreover, was that Iranian officials were well aware that al-Qaeda’s leadership figures, including military commanders and with their troops, were also slipping into Iran from Afghanistan, but Iranian security forces had not yet located them.

Keeping the legal arrivals under closer surveillance and watching for any contacts with those illegally in the country, therefore, was a prudent policy for Iranian security under the circumstances.

In addition, having bin Laden’s family and other al-Qaeda cadres under their surveillance gave Iran potential bargaining chips it could use to counter hostile actions by both al-Qaeda and the United States.

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/19/washingtons-tall-tale-of-iranian-al-qaeda-alliance-based-on-questionably-sourced-book-the-exile/