position:press secretary

Are Jared and Ivanka Good for the Jews? - The New York Times

Jewish communities stand more divided than ever on whether to embrace or denounce Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

By Amy Chozick and Hannah Seligson
Nov. 17, 2018

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/style/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner.html

On election night in Beverly Hills, Jason Blum, the hot shot horror-movie producer, was accepting an award at the Israel Film Festival. The polls in a string of midterm contests were closing, and Mr. Blum, a vocal critic of President Trump, was talking about how much was at stake.

“The past two years have been hard for all of us who cherish the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of this country,” Mr. Blum said.

That’s when the crowd of mostly Jewish producers and power brokers started to chant, “We like Trump!” An Israeli man stepped onto the stage to try to pull Mr. Blum away from the microphone as the crowd at the Saban Theater Steve Tisch Cinema Center cheered.

“As you can see from this auditorium, it’s the end of civil discourse,” Mr. Blum said, as security rushed the stage to help him. “Thanks to our president, anti-Semitism is on the rise.”
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In the weeks after a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in one of the most horrific acts of anti-Semitism in years, debates about the president’s role in stoking extremism have roiled American Jews — and forced an uncomfortable reckoning between Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and his daughter and son-in-law’s Jewish faith.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers greets Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump near the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

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Rabbi Jeffrey Myers greets Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump near the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
Rabbis and Jewish leaders have raged on Twitter and in op-eds, in sermons and over shabbat dinners, over how to reconcile the paradox of Jared Kushner, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, and Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism to marry Mr. Kushner.

To some Jews, the couple serves as a bulwark pushing the Trump administration toward pro-Israel policies, most notably the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. To many others, they are the wolves in sheep’s clothing, allowing Mr. Trump to brush aside criticism that his words have fueled the uptick in violent attacks against Jews.

“For Jews who are deeply opposed to Donald Trump and truly believe he is an anti-Semite, it’s deeply problematic that he’s got a Jewish son-in-law and daughter. How can that be?” said Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.
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Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump serve as senior advisers in the White House. At a time when Judaism is under assault — the F.B.I. said this week that anti-Semitic attacks have increased in each of the last three years — they are unabashedly Orthodox, observing shabbat each week, walking to an Orthodox Chabad shul near their Kalorama home in Washington, D.C., dropping their children off at Jewish day school and hanging mezuzas on the doors of their West Wing offices.

After the Pittsburgh attack, Mr. Kushner played a key role in Mr. Trump (eventually) decrying “the scourge of anti-Semitism.” And Mr. Kushner helped arrange the president’s visit to the Squirrel Hill synagogue, including inviting Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States to accompany them. There, in Pittsburgh, thousands marched to protest what one organizer described as the insult of the Mr. Trump’s visit.
Arabella Kushner lights the menorah as her parents look on during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in 2017.
Credit
Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

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Arabella Kushner lights the menorah as her parents look on during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in 2017.CreditOlivier Douliery/Getty Images
The White House has referenced Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump’s religion to dismiss accusations that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened anti-Semites. “The president is the grandfather of several Jewish grandchildren,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters.

Using the couple in this way has unnerved many Jews who oppose the president and say Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump violated the sacred, if sometimes unspoken, communal code that mandates Jews take care of each other during times of struggle. “I’m more offended by Jared than I am by President Trump,” said Eric Reimer, a lawyer in New York who was on Mr. Kushner’s trivia team at The Frisch School, a modern Orthodox yeshiva in New Jersey that they both attended.

“We, as Jews, are forced to grapple with the fact that Jared and his wife are Jewish, but Jared is participating in acts of Chillul Hashem,” said Mr. Reimer, using the Hebrew term for when a Jew behaves immorally while in the presence of others.
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For Mr. Reimer, who hasn’t spoken to Mr. Kushner since high school, one of those incidents was the administration’s Muslim ban, which prompted members of the Frisch community to sign an open letter to Mr. Kushner imploring him “to exercise the influence and access you have to annals of power to ensure others don’t suffer the same fate as millions of our co-religionists.”

Leah Pisar, president of the Aladdin Project, a Paris-based group that works to counter Holocaust denial, and whose late father, Samuel Pisar, escaped Auschwitz and advised John F. Kennedy, said she found it “inconceivable that Jared could stay affiliated with the administration after Pittsburgh” and called Mr. Kushner the president’s “fig leaf.”

Those kinds of accusations are anathema to other Jews, particularly a subset of Orthodox Jews who accused liberal Jews of politicizing the Pittsburgh attack and who say that any policies that would weaken Israel are the ultimate act of anti-Semitism.
Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner at the opening ceremony of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in May.
Credit
Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press

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Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner at the opening ceremony of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in May.CreditSebastian Scheiner/Associated Press
“Jared and Ivanka are one of us as traditional Jews who care deeply about Israel,” said Ronn Torossian, a New York publicist whose children attend the Ramaz School, the same Upper East Side yeshiva where Mr. Kushner’s eldest daughter Arabella was once enrolled. “I look at them as part of our extended family.”

Even some Jews who dislike Mr. Trump’s policies and recoil at his political style may feel a reluctance to criticize the country’s most prominent Orthodox Jewish couple, grappling with the age-old question that has haunted the Jewish psyche for generations: Yes, but is it good for the Jews?
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To that end, even as liberal New York Jews suggest the couple would be snubbed when they eventually return to the city, many in the Orthodox community would likely embrace them. “They certainly won’t be banned, but I don’t think most synagogues would give them an aliyah,” said Ethan Tucker, a rabbi and president of the Hadar yeshiva in New York, referring to the relatively limited honor of being called to make a blessing before and after the reading of the Torah. (Mr. Tucker is also the stepson of Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish candidate to run on a major party ticket in the U.S.) “I don’t think people generally honor people they feel were accomplices to politics and policies they abhor,” Mr. Tucker said.

Haskel Lookstein, who serves as rabbi emeritus of the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, the modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side that Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump attended, wrote in an open letter to Mr. Trump that he was “deeply troubled” by the president saying “You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” in response to the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va.

When reached last week to comment about the president’s daughter and son-in-law days after the Pittsburgh attack, Mr. Lookstein said simply, “I love them and that’s one of the reasons I don’t talk about them.”

Talk to enough Jews about Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, and you begin to realize that the couple has become a sort of Rorschach test, with defenders and detractors seeing what they want to see as it relates to larger rifts about Jewish identity.

“It’s not about Jared and Ivanka,” said Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “People look at them through the prism of their own worldviews.”
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From left to right on front row, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara Netanyahu, Mr. Kushner, Ms. Trump, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the opening ceremony of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Credit
Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press

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From left to right on front row, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara Netanyahu, Mr. Kushner, Ms. Trump, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the opening ceremony of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.CreditSebastian Scheiner/Associated Press
Those worldviews are rapidly changing. One in five American Jews now describes themselves as having no religion and identifying as Jews based only on ancestry, ethnicity or culture, according to Pew. By contrast, in the 1950s, 93 percent of American Jews identified as Jews based on religion.
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As Jews retreat from membership to reform synagogues, historically made up of political liberals who were at the forefront of the fight for Civil Rights and other progressive issues, Chabad-Lubavitch, the Orthodox Hasidic group with which Mr. Kushner is affiliated, has become a rapidly-growing Jewish movement. The growth of Chabad correlates with fierce divisions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a small but growing contingent of American Jews who prioritize Israel above any other political or social issue.

Mr. Kushner, in particular, has become a sort of proxy for these larger schisms about faith and Israel, according to Jewish experts. “There is a great deal of anxiety around the coming of the Orthodox,” said Dr. Sarna, the Brandeis professor. “Jared in every way — his Orthodoxy, his Chabad ties, his views on Israel — symbolizes those changes.”

Mr. Kushner is the scion of wealthy real-estate developers and his family has donated millions of dollars to the Jewish community, including through a foundation that gives to settlements in the West Bank. Mr. Kushner influenced the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy, to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and to shutter a Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington.

“You’d be hard pressed to find a better supporter of Israel than Donald Trump and Jared plays a role in that,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. Mr. Kushner is currently working on a Middle East peace plan expected to be rolled out in the coming months.

Haim Saban, an entertainment magnate and pro-Israel Democrat, is optimistic about Mr. Kushner’s efforts. He said in an interview from his hotel in Israel that although he disagrees with some of Mr. Trump’s policies, “Jared and by extension the president understand the importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel on multiple levels — security, intelligence, but most of all, shared values.”
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That embrace has only exacerbated tensions with secular Jews who overwhelmingly vote Democratic and oppose Mr. Trump. According to a 2018 survey by the American Jewish Committee, 41 percent of Jews said they strongly disagree with Mr. Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israeli relations and 71 percent had an overall unfavorable opinion of Mr. Trump. (In response to questions for this story, a White House press aide referred reporters to an Ami magazine poll of 263 Orthodox Jews in the tristate area published in August. Eighty-two percent said they would vote for President Trump in 2020.)

“To wave a flag and say ‘Oh, he’s obviously pro-Jewish because he moved the embassy’ just absolutely ignores what we know to be a deeply alarming rise of anti-Semitism and all sorts of dog-whistling and enabling of the alt-right,” said Andy Bachman, a prominent progressive rabbi in New York.
President Trump praying at the Western Wall.
Credit
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

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President Trump praying at the Western Wall.CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times
In September, Mr. Kushner and his top advisers, Jason D. Greenblatt and Avi Berkowitz, hosted a private dinner at the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side. Over a kosher meal, Mr. Kushner, aware of concerns within the Jewish community that Israel policy had become an overly partisan issue, fielded the advice of a range of Jewish leaders, including hedge-fund billionaire and Republican donor Paul Singer and Mr. Saban, to craft his Middle East peace plan. “He called and said ’I’ll bring 10 Republicans and you bring 10 Democrats,’” Mr. Saban said.

The undertaking will only bring more kvetching about Mr. Kushner. Indeed, some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent Jewish supporters have already expressed their displeasure at any deal that would require Israel to give up land.

“I’m not happy with Jared promoting a peace deal that’s sending a message that we’re ready to ignore the horrors of the Palestinian regime,” said Morton A. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America and a friend of Republican megadonor Sheldon G. Adelson.

“But …” Mr. Klein added, as if self-aware of how other Jews will view his position, “I am a fanatical, pro-Israel Zionist.”
Amy Chozick is a New York-based writer-at-large and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, writing about the personalities and power struggles in business, politics and media.

Saudi Arabia Planned to Invade Qatar Last Summer. Rex Tillerson’s Efforts to Stop It May Have Cost Him His Job.
▻https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/rex-tillerson-qatar-saudi-uae

THIRTEEN HOURS BEFORE Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned from the presidential Twitter feed that he was being fired, he did something that President Donald Trump had been unwilling to do. Following a phone call with his British counterpart, Tillerson condemned a deadly nerve agent attack in the U.K., saying that he had “full confidence in the U.K.’s investigation and its assessment that Russia was likely responsible.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had called the attack “reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible,” but stopped short of blaming Russia, leading numerous media outlets to speculate that Tillerson was fired for criticizing Russia.

But in the months that followed his departure, press reports strongly suggested that the countries lobbying hardest for Tillerson’s removal were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which were frustrated by Tillerson’s attempts to mediate and end their blockade of Qatar. One report in the New York Times even suggested that the UAE ambassador to Washington knew that Tillerson would be forced out three months before he was fired in March.

The Intercept has learned of a previously unreported episode that stoked the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s anger at Tillerson and that may have played a key role in his removal. In the summer of 2017, several months before the Gulf allies started pushing for his ouster, Tillerson intervened to stop a secret Saudi-led, UAE-backed plan to invade and essentially conquer Qatar, according to one current member of the U.S. intelligence community and two former State Department officials, all of whom declined to be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

In the days and weeks after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and closed down their land, sea, and air borders with the country, Tillerson made a series of phone calls urging Saudi officials not to take military action against the country. The flurry of calls in June 2017 has been reported, but State Department and press accounts at the time described them as part of a broad-strokes effort to resolve tensions in the Gulf, not as an attempt by Tillerson to avert a Saudi-led military operation.

In the calls, Tillerson, who dealt extensively with the Qatari government as the CEO of Exxon Mobil, urged Saudi King Salman, then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir not to attack Qatar or otherwise escalate hostilities, the sources told The Intercept. Tillerson also encouraged Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to call his counterparts in Saudi Arabia to explain the dangers of such an invasion. Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar’s capital city, is the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command and home to some 10,000 American troops.

Pressure from Tillerson caused Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the country, to back down, concerned that the invasion would damage Saudi Arabia’s long-term relationship with the U.S. But Tillerson’s intervention enraged Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and effective ruler of that country, according to the U.S. intelligence official and a source close to the Emirati royal family, who declined to be identified, citing concerns about his safety.

Later that June, Mohammed bin Salman would be named crown prince, leapfrogging over his cousin to become next in line for the throne after his elderly father. His ascension signaled his growing influence over the kingdom’s affairs.

Qatari intelligence agents working inside Saudi Arabia discovered the plan in the early summer of 2017, according to the U.S. intelligence official. Tillerson acted after the Qatari government notified him and the U.S. embassy in Doha. Several months later, intelligence reporting by the U.S. and U.K. confirmed the existence of the plan.

The plan, which was largely devised by the Saudi and UAE crown princes and was likely some weeks away from being implemented, involved Saudi ground troops crossing the land border into Qatar, and, with military support from the UAE, advancing roughly 70 miles toward Doha. Circumventing the U.S. air base, Saudi forces would then seize the capital.

Trumpism, Realized
To preserve the political and cultural preeminence of white Americans against a tide of demographic change, the administration has settled on a policy of systemic child abuse.
▻https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/child-separation/563252

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2018/06/GettyImages_500414662/lead_720_405.jpg?mod=1529501538

The policy’s cruelty is its purpose: By inflicting irreparable trauma on children and their families, the administration intends to persuade those looking to America for a better life to stay home. The barbarism of deliberately inflicting suffering on children as coercion, though, has forced the Trump administration and its allies in the conservative press to offer three contradictory defenses.

First, there’s the denial that the policy exists: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen declared, “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.”

Not so, the administration’s defenders in the media have insisted. The policy is both real and delightful. The conservative radio host Laura Ingraham called the uproar “hilarious,” adding sarcastically that “the U​.​S​.​ is so inhumane to provide entertainment, sports, tutoring, medical, dental, four meals a day, and clean, decent housing for children whose parents irresponsibly tried to bring them across the border illegally.” She also described the facilities as “essentially summer camps.” On Fox News, the Breitbart editor Joel Pollak argued that the detention facilities offer children both basic necessities and the chance to receive an education. “This is a place where they really have the welfare of the kids at heart,” he said.

Navarro Rebukes Mnuchin for Declaring China Trade War ‘On Hold’ - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/navarro-undercuts-mnuchin-s-trade-truce-line-as-china-talks-near

Toujours aussi facile de se repérer dans la pétaudière de l’administration Trump. Pour la porte-parole, #SNAFU …

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro criticized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for declaring the U.S.-China trade war was on hold, calling the remarks an “unfortunate sound bite” and acknowledging there’s a dispute that needs to be resolved.

“What we’re having with China is a trade dispute, plain and simple,” Navarro said in an interview broadcast Wednesday with National Public Radio. “We lost the trade war long ago” with deals such as Nafta and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, he said.

The remarks from Navarro, a hard-liner on President Donald Trump’s trade team, come just days before U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to meet with his counterparts in Beijing to discuss ways to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China. The White House on Tuesday said the U.S. is moving ahead with plans to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports and curb investment in sensitive technology.

Just over a week ago, Mnuchin said in a televised interview that the prospect of a trade war with China was “on hold.”

A person familiar with the matter pushed back against the idea that Navarro was rebuking Mnuchin, saying the trade adviser hadn’t intended his comments as a reflection on the Treasury secretary. Navarro merely intended to convey that the skirmish with China didn’t rise to the level of trade war, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed the Treasury secretary’s comments on Wednesday when asked about Navarro’s remarks.

Mnuchin “didn’t say it was on hold indefinitely,” Sanders said in the daily press briefing in Washington. “The president ultimately makes the decisions on trade, and when he does we announce them. And that’s exactly what’s taking place in this process.”

The renewed threat of tariffs could stop the planned talks between Ross and his Chinese counterparts, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing sources in both countries. A team of U.S. officials was in the Chinese capital on Wednesday to prepare for the talks.

Asked about potential Chinese retaliation, especially on American farm goods, Navarro said “we’re ready for anything.”

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 13, 2018
United States Assessment of the Assad Regime’s Chemical Weapons Use
▻https://www.defense.gov/portals/1/features/2018/0418_syria/img/United-States-Assessment-of-the-Assad-Regime%E2%80%99s-Chemical-Weapons-Use

[…]
Multiple government helicopters were observed over Duma on April 7, with witnesses specifically reporting a Mi-8 helicopter, known to have taken off from the Syrian regime’s nearby Dumayr airfield, circling over Duma during the attack. Numerous eyewitnesses corroborate that barrel bombs were dropped from these helicopters, a tactic used to target civilians indiscriminately throughout the war. Photos of barrel bombs dropped in Duma closely match those used previously by the regime. These barrel bombs were likely used in the chemical attack. Reliable intelligence also indicates that Syrian military officials coordinated what appears to be the use of chlorine in Duma on April 7. Following these barrel bomb attacks, doctors and aid organizations on the ground in Duma reported the strong smell of chlorine and described symptoms consistent with exposure to sarin.
[…]
In this case—as with previous instances of regime chemical weapons use—United States experts considered alternative explanations beyond the Syrian regime’s culpability for chemical weapons use. Within hours of the first allegation of chemical use on April 7, Syria’s state-run news agency painted the reports as a smear campaign by the last remaining opposition group in East Ghouta, Jaysh al-Islam. We have no information to suggest that this group has ever used chemical weapons. Further, it is unlikely that the opposition could fabricate this volume of media reports on regime chemical weapons use. Such a widespread fabrication would require a highly organized and compartmented campaign to deceive multiple media outlets while evading our detection. The Syrian regime and Russia have also claimed that a terrorist group conducted the attacks or that the attacks were staged are not consistent with the existing body of credible information. The Syrian regime, conversely, has already been condemned by United Nations (UN) investigators for past and continued chemical weapons attacks. It is the only actor in Syria with both the motive and the means to deploy nerve agents. The use of helicopters further implicates the regime; no non-state group has conducted air operations in the conflict

Zakharova Tells Who Is Really Behind The Salisbury Anti-Russian Campaign - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MNKqJxPcHg

Maria Zakharova, the official representative to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tells the way it is.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ DUMBEST Lie Yet
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGEEnvwpqBU

On se demande pourquoi les dirigeants derrière choisissent tel ou tel visage féminin pour se faire représenter les deux côtés étant parfaitement libres de tendances anti-sexistes.

▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Huckabee_Sanders

Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders (born August 13, 1982) is an American campaign manager and political advisor who was appointed White House Press Secretary to President Donald Trump in July 2017.

▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Zakharova

Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova (Мария Владимировна Захарова), née le 24 décembre 1975, est une journaliste et diplomate russe. Elle est la directrice de l’information et de la presse du ministère des affaires étrangères de Russie depuis le 10 août 2015

#USA #Russie #propagande #femmes

Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day
▻https://news.vice.com/story/trump-folder-positive-news-white-house

Twice a day since the beginning of the Trump administration, a special folder is prepared for the president. The first document is prepared around 9:30 a.m. and the follow-up, around 4:30 p.m. Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer both wanted the privilege of delivering the 20-to-25-page packet to President Trump personally, White House sources say.

These sensitive papers, described to VICE News by three current and former White House officials, don’t contain top-secret intelligence or updates on legislative initiatives. Instead, the folders are filled with screenshots of positive cable news chyrons (those lower-third headlines and crawls), admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of Trump on TV looking powerful.

What did Tillerson’s Russia trip achieve?

▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/tillerson-lavrov-russia-meeting.html

❝Moscow also seized the moment of direct contact with the top US diplomat to clarify its own positions. On Syria, the departure of President Bashar al-Assad was and remains a non-starter for Russia. What neither Lavrov nor Putin would probably say to Tillerson, but do expect him to understand, is that Russia has invested so much into Syria now, politically and militarily, that Moscow’s primary concern is less about Assad than about the principle, power and prestige of maintaining its position. Hence, any plan that might move Moscow from this standing would have to involve some face-saving mechanism that the Kremlin could package as a win-win internationally, and as a “decision made in Russia’s best interest” domestically.

So far, the US vision has been to get Russia on board by offering Moscow an opportunity to “play a constructive role in the humanitarian and political catastrophe in the Middle East.” That approach misses a critical point in Russian political psychology: The Kremlin believes it has already stepped up as a constructive player to counter the increasingly destructive forces unleashed by the United States. This belief — no matter how uncomfortably it sits with anyone — is not entirely groundless. Many players in the region perceive Russia in this capacity, even if it’s just for their own political reasons.

A senior Russian diplomat speaking with Al-Monitor not for attribution said: “[Russia] stepping aside from Assad would mean, among other things, an ultimate win for the US regime-change policy. It would indicate that no matter how long you resist this policy, you’ll be made to surrender. That’s a serious red line in Russia’s foreign policy thinking, the one that President Putin cannot afford to be crossed — not for all the tea in China, or should I say, a chocolate cake in Mar-a-Lago?”

Therefore, Tillerson’s statement on the importance of Assad’s departure in a “structural, organized manner” is seen in Moscow as a positive outcome. It leaves open the prospect of returning to the political process that was underway for several months before the gas attack and the airstrikes.

However, it might be much more difficult to achieve now, as the parties focus on reinforcing their respective and contradictory narratives. Reports of US intelligence intercepting communications between Syrian military and chemical experts about preparations for a sarin nerve gas attack in Idlib are a powerful argument for the audience that shares the “American narrative” — as Moscow sees it. However, it is producing counternarratives on the Russian side. One such narrative, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, suggests that of all “12 facilities that stored Syrian chemical weapons, 10 were destroyed in the timeline between 2013 and 2016 under the watch of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons … [while] the remaining two compounds are out of reach for the Syrian government since they are located in the territory controlled by the so-called opposition.”

Also, as Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, put it: “The recitation of mantras on the necessity of Assad’s departure” won’t budge Moscow’s position an inch, nor will it help with a political solution to the Syria crisis. On the contrary, it will only reinforce Russia’s position on Assad. So far, Moscow has been operating on the principle of presumed innocence and calling for an “unbiased probe” into the Syria attack. To Russia, a refusal to have such an investigation would show that the case against Assad is being pursued for political rather than humanitarian reasons.

Remarkably, a recent Mir interview with Putin indicates Moscow hasn’t reached a concrete conclusion on exactly who perpetrated the attacks. Putin’s statement that it could have been the Syrian opposition or the Islamic State (IS) is based primarily on the opposition’s hope of saving itself in a losing battle and on previous IS chemical attacks in Iraq. On factual grounds, however, Russia’s arguments look as shaky as the West’s “confidence” that Assad did it. Yet this state of affairs leaves enough space for US-Russia cooperation on investigating the case, if only inspired by a solid political will.

Though it seems counterintuitive, Russia’s veto of the UN resolution on Syria proposed by the United States, the UK and France hours after the Tillerson-Lavrov press conference is an important sign of Russia’s commitment to work with the United States. Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov explained the veto by saying the resolution assigned guilt “before an independent and objective investigation” could be conducted.

However, Russia probably had decided to veto the resolution even before Tillerson and Lavrov met, to give itself more time to think through the negotiation results. Moscow wanted to come up with a fresh proposal at the UN that would reflect a more engaging approach for both US and Russian interests. Hence came Safronkov’s heated and scandalous lashing out against British diplomat Matthew Rycroft, whom he accused of trying to derail a potential agreement on Syria and Assad’s fate that Moscow had hoped to reach with Washington. "Don’t you dare insult Russia!” he said at the UN Security Council meeting April 12.

Rycroft had accused Moscow of supporting Assad’s “murderous, barbaric” regime.

In general, the visit left a feeling in Moscow that the initiatives Lavrov and Tillerson discussed will face intense scrutiny in Washington. The confrontational rhetoric flying from both capitals will remain prevalent. But the parties have articulated a need and agreed on some — though not many — concrete steps toward managing the situation. It’s not likely to lead to a “great-power alliance” or help both parties accomplish much together. But it might be just what’s needed to take the two back from the brink of a direct military clash and spare the world even more uncertainty. Given the current circumstances, this might be the most comfortable paradigm for the bilateral relations — at least until Putin and Trump meet face to face.

MAXIM A. SUCHKOV
Editor, Russia-Mideast 
Maxim A. Suchkov, PhD is the Editor of Al-Monitor’s Russia-Mideast coverage as well as an expert of the Russian International Affairs Council. He is also an Associate Professor of International Relations and Deputy Director for Research at the School of International Relations, Pyatigorsk State University based in the North Caucasus, Russia. Formerly he was a Fulbright visiting fellow at Georgetown University (2010-11) and New York University (2015). He is the author of the “Essays on Russian Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and the Middle East.” On Twitter: @Max_A_Suchkov

#Russie #Syrie #Etats-Unis

Canadian Mosque Shooter Is Proof of the Dangers of Right-Wing Online Trolls | Alternet
▻http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/quebec-attack-and-right-wing-media

http://www.alternet.org/files/story_images/14132414383_9b71fd117a_z.jpg

In other words, he’s not a “lone wolf” gunman. He’s an “alt-right” assassin who seemingly became deeply immersed in a radical movement in search of cultural and ethnic purity. (One family member thinks Bissonnette “fell under the influence” of someone who radicalized him.)

In the wake of the deadly attack, Fox News viewers were told virtually none of that about the gunman. In fact, they were fed misinformation about the identity of the shooter, thanks to the network’s claim on Twitter that a second gunman on the scene was “of Moroccan origin.” (Though police initially arrested two suspects, including one who is of Moroccan descent, they quickly realized he was a witness to the attack and that there was only one shooter, the Canadian native Bissonnette. Fox did not correct its tweet for more than 24 hours, until a spokesperson for the Canadian prime minister called on the network to “either retract or update” its false claim.) “Alt-right” outlet Breitbart.com did the same thing, hyping the Morocco angle, and then limply updating the incorrect report.

Using that context, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to politicize the Quebec massacre by weirdly suggesting it proves the need for the president’s get-tough-on-terror agenda (emphasis added):

We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. It’s a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant, and why the president is taking steps to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to our nation’s safety and security.

To repeat, the arrested gunman is reportedly a white nationalist Trump supporter.

#post-thruth

Ma (troisième) journée avec Trump

The Positive Reframe: Why Trump’s Inauguration is Not the Beginning of an Era — but the End

▻https://shift.newco.co/https-medium-com-peteleyden-why-trumps-inauguration-is-not-the-beginning

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*K0O5b-Yef6nSiLkdkA1fNg.png

Why Trump’s Inauguration is Not the Beginning of an Era — but the End

“We are suffering just now from a bad attack of economic pessimism. It is common to hear people say that the epoch of enormous economic progress which characterized the 19th century is over; that the rapid improvement in the standard of life is now going to slow down — at any rate in Great Britain; that a decline in prosperity is more likely than an improvement in the decade which lies ahead of us.

I believe that this is a wildly mistaken interpretation of what is happening to us. We are suffering, not from the rheumatics of old age, but from the growing-pains of over-rapid changes, from the painfulness of readjustment between one economic period and another…”

–—

White House to issue executive order on “safe zones” in Syria, ban on Muslim immigrants and refugees - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/27/syri-j27.html

White House to issue executive order on “safe zones” in Syria, ban on Muslim immigrants and refugees
By Niles Niemuth
27 January 2017

US President Donald Trump declared in an extended interview with ABC News broadcast Wednesday that he will sign an executive order directing authorities to implement US controlled “safe zones” in Syria. The order would also block the entry of refugees and immigrants from a number of majority Muslim countries, including Syria.

–—

Breakdown in Mexico-US relations as Trump threatens trade war - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/27/mex-j27.html

Breakdown in Mexico-US relations as Trump threatens trade war
By Eric London
27 January 2017

On Wednesday Donald Trump announced the construction of a wall along the US’s southern border, provoking a diplomatic crisis without precedent in the modern history of US-Mexico relations. When Trump repeated his ultimatum that Mexico pay for the cost of construction, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a visit to the White House that had been planned for January 31.

–—

Trump’s meeting with the UK’s Theresa May and the US/European conflict - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/27/pers-j27.html

Trump’s meeting with the UK’s Theresa May and the US/European conflict
27 January 2017

UK Prime Minister Theresa May expected today’s meeting with US President Donald Trump to be a political coup. It was to prove that Britain had a powerful ally in pursuing its exit from the European Union and could obtain a US trade deal to compensate for the possible loss of access to Europe’s Single Market. Trump’s support could even strengthen May’s hand in negotiations with Germany and France.

–—

Trump is starting a trade war we don’t need - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-trade-war-we-dont-need/2017/01/26/9d6bb964-e416-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/01/26/Foreign/Images/2017-01-24T223123Z_1896192962_RC1922FCE860_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRADE-NAFTA-MEXICO.jpg

UNTIL A few days ago, the U.S.-Mexico relationship was a strong one that benefited both countries. In the first week of his term, President Trump seems determined to change that — and for no good reason.

After decades of economic integration, the United States and its southern neighbor have established a valuable trading relationship exchanging $1.4 billion in goods every day. Mexico is the second-largest foreign market for U.S.-made products.

–—

White House says Mexico border wall might be funded by tax on imports - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexican-president-cancels-visit-to-washington-as-tensions-with-trump-administration-intensify/2017/01/26/ececc3da-e3d9-11e6-a419-eefe8eff0835_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/01/26/Foreign/Images/2017-01-26T205500Z_989046646_RC1848B162D0_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-MEXICO-IMMIGRATION.jpg

MEXICO CITY — A deep rift opened Thursday between the United States and its southern neighbor as the Trump administration pressed forward with a plan for a giant border wall and insisted that Mexico would pay for it, possibly through a U.S. tax on imports.

President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday called off a trip to Washington after emphasizing that Mexico would not finance the wall. Hours later, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said the border barrier would be funded by a 20 percent import tax on goods from Mexico.

–—

Trump lays groundwork to change U.S. role in the world - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-lays-groundwork-to-change-us-role-in-the-world/2017/01/26/812998e6-e404-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/01/27/National-Security/Images/632788014.jpg

President Trump began this week to reshape the U.S. role in the world, laying the groundwork, in a series of planned and signed executive actions and statements, for the “America first” foreign policy on which he campaigned.

Already, Trump has mandated construction of a border wall with Mexico and a clampdown on local immigration enforcement. Other directives drafted but not yet signed would halt all refu­gee admissions and entry into the United States of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries deemed terrorist hotbeds; declare a moratorium on new multilateral treaties; and mandate audits of U.S. funding for international organizations, including the United Nations, with a view toward cutting U.S. voluntary contributions by 40 percent.

–—

In these six American towns, laws targeting ‘the illegals’ didn’t go as planned - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-these-six-american-towns-laws-targeting-the-illegals-didnt-go-as-planned/2017/01/26/b3410c4a-d9d4-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/10/19/Sports/Images/HAZLETON0211476921306.jpg

HAZLETON, Pa. — Starting a decade ago, a group of small U.S. cities began passing laws to block undocumented immigrants from living within their borders.

They were a collection of mostly white exurbs and faded manufacturing towns whose populations suddenly were transforming. More Latinos were arriving in search of jobs, and the towns’ leaders complained of burdened schools and higher crime.

–—

#états-unis #trump

5 jours sous #trump

Five. Days. In.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.

On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.

On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.

On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.

On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.

On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.

On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”

On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.

On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.

On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.

On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.

On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.

On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.

On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.

On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.

On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.

On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.

On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.

On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.

On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.

From News and Guts

*credit for compilation: Karen Cornett-Dwyer
h/t Laura McTighe

Rien qu’un matin avec Trump sur WSWS ...

1. Trump veut interdire aux Chinois l’accès à leurs îles (artificielles ou non) en Mer de Chine méridionale.

Trump threats on South China Sea heighten risk of nuclear war - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/pers-j25.html

Trump threats on South China Sea heighten risk of nuclear war
25 January 2017

Just days after taking office, the Trump administration has set course for a conflict with China over the South China Sea that threatens military clashes and war.

President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, on Tuesday backed up an earlier assertion by the administration’s nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, that Washington would bar Chinese access to islets being built up by Beijing in the South China Sea.

–— --- ---

2. Trump confirme la nomination d’une milliardaire au poste de ministre de l’éducation, opposée à l’école publique.

Senate moves toward confirmation of billionaire opponent of public schools - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/devo-j25.html

Senate moves toward confirmation of billionaire opponent of public schools
By Isabelle Belanger
25 January 2017

The confirmation of Trump’s pick for education secretary, billionaire proponent of school privatization Betsy DeVos, is being rushed through despite blatant conflicts of interest and her ignorance of basic federal education laws. In a letter Monday, Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, rejected Democratic Party requests for a second hearing. The Republican-controlled Senate will vote on the confirmation January 31.

–— --- ---

3. Trump veut attaquer et détruire des fragile systèmes de santé.

Trump nominee defends administration’s assault on health care - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/pric-j25.html

Trump nominee defends administration’s assault on health care
By Kate Randall
25 January 2017

In his final appearance before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, Rep. Tom Price (Republican of Georgia), Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arrogantly dismissed questioning from committee Democrats about the new administration’s planned assault on Medicare, Medicaid and health care in general.

–— --- ---

4. Trump va relancer Keystone XL et Dakota Access pipelines et en même temps empêcher l’EPA (agence pour l’environnement) de surveiller et analyser les effets environnementaux de ces projets.

Trump’s pro-corporate rampage of reaction
Executive orders approve Dakota, Keystone pipelines
By Patrick Martin
25 January 2017

President Donald Trump has ordered US government agencies to expedite approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, running roughshod over opposition by environmentalists and Native American tribes.

The Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL) has encountered impassioned opposition, with thousands gathering despite the deep freeze of the North Dakota winter to block completion of the 1,200-mile-long pipeline, which is to bring oil from the Bakken fields to refineries in the Midwest and South. The pipeline’s final link would cross the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, threatening its water supply and tearing up land deemed sacred in tribal culture.

#trump #misère #décadence

‘Limited & proportionate’: Obama vows to continue ‘self-defense’ strikes in Yemen — RT America
▻https://www.rt.com/usa/362839-obama-yemen-necessary-self-defense

On Friday US President Barack Obama informed Congress about authorizing the strikes “in response to anti-ship cruise missile launches perpetrated by Houthi insurgents.” In the “War Powers Resolution” letter, Obama stated that US armed forces targeted radar facilities which the US believes had been involved in “the October 9 launches and other recent attacks.”
[…]
The American leader’s statement somewhat contradicts the Pentagon’s assessment presented a day earlier.

“We don’t know who was pulling the trigger,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said on Thursday, confirming only that US ships had been attacked from “Houthi-controlled territory.”

Furthermore, Cook went on to implicate Tehran in the matter, adding that throughout the conflict “Iran has played a role and been supportive of the Houthi rebels.”

Meanwhile the Houthis have denied any attempts to strike US warships calling the US allegations “false justifications” that pave the way for a further escalation of the bombardment of Yemen which so far has been carried out only by the Saudi-led coalition.
[…]
Iran in the meantime reacted to the US escalation by moving its navy closer to Yemen’s waters, deploying a number of warships to the Gulf of Aden.

Khodorkovsky Announces ‘Open Media’ Project To Support Investigative Journalism Startups · Global Voices

▻https://globalvoices.org/2016/09/29/khodorkovsky-announces-open-media-project-to-support-investigative-jou

https://globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/16662841792_9f301807b5_o-800x450.jpg

On Thursday, exiled Russian oil oligarch and opposition activist #Mikhail_Khodorkovsky announced the launch of “Open Media,” a project that will provide financial and technical support—including legal, accounting, and promotional services—to journalists and civil society activists working on investigative projects.

As reported by RBC, Open Media will support five to seven projects, providing between 3 and 30 million rubles (around $50,000 to $500,000) of funding to each. In addition to accepting applications from journalists, the commission is interested in project proposals from people who don’t have direct experience in the field, including activists and public figures, according to Khodorkovsky’s press secretary, Kulle Pispanen. Projects involving research on economics, culture, and the relationship between business and the authorities are likely to be considered. Each project will have a chief editor and a small group of staffers. Khodorkovsky said Open Media will give people an opportunity to “try out their ideas; if they don’t work out, it’s no big deal, it will another time.”

#media #journalisme

KVV Group threatens Latvia with possible fine of up to EUR 300 million
Ukrainian KVV Group is preparing to submit a complaint to the European Commission’s Anti-Monopoly and Corruption Prevention Committee against Latvia. This could result in Latvia having to face a fine of EUR 150 to EUR 300 million, as reported by KVV Group’s press secretary Natalia Napadovskaya.

▻http://bnn-news.com/kvv-group-threatens-latvia-with-possible-fine-of-up-to-eur-300-million-149

#Latvia #Latvija #KVVgroup #Liepaja #Economics

Just the Facts Blog: The Imaginary Cuban Troops in Syria
▻http://mattpeppe.blogspot.fr/2015/10/the-imaginary-cuban-troops-in-syria.html

Despite the thinness of the report’s sourcing and the improbability of its content, other news organizations were quick to parrot its claims. Spanish newspaper ABC noted the next day that media from Germany to Argentina to the Middle East had echoed the Fox News report, while ABC did the same themselves.

By Friday, the story had gained enough traction that it was raised at a White House briefing. In a response that should have been enough to put the story to rest, the White House Press Secretary said “we’ve seen no evidence to indicate that those reports are true.”

But a few hours later, the Daily Beast had definitively declared in a headline that: “Cuba Is Intervening in Syria to Help Russia. It’s Not the First Time Havana’s Assisted Moscow.”

À la veille de la publication du rapport, la Russie rappelle le peu d’enthousiasme de la commission d’enquête pour les éléments qu’elle a apportés.

Russian evidence on MH17 crash ignored – Peskov — RT News
▻https://www.rt.com/news/318363-dutch-investigators-ignore-russia

A number of facts presented by Russia regarding last year’s crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine are being ignored, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said, a day ahead of the Dutch Safety Board presenting its final technical report on the catastrophe.

“There are facts delivered by the Russian side that for unclear reasons are being apparently ignored,” the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists.

Peskov said that the Russian side has “repeatedly expressed its disappointment over the lack of proper level of cooperation and engagement of the Russian experts into the investigation.”

The spokesperson noted that certain leaks from the report that emerged earlier could not be verified and proved authentic.

Peskov called on the media to wait for the official report’s release and promised that the document is going to be “most thoroughly examined” by Russian experts.

According to a report in the Malaysian media, Russia’s Roasaviation flight authority handed over to the Netherlands some “serious remarks” in response to the abstract of the final report on the reasons for the MH17 crash on July 17, 2014, which killed all 298 passengers and crew members onboard.

Malaysian newspaper New Straits Time cited the deputy head of Roasaviation, Oleg Storchevoy, who wrote a letter to the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAA), accusing the Dutch-led joint investigation group of ignoring “comprehensive information delivered by Russia.”

Carter Directs Staff to ’Open Lines of Communication’ With Russia > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Article View
▻http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/621044/carter-directs-staff-to-open-lines-of-communication-with-russia

Defense Secretary Ash Carter today directed his staff to “open lines of communication with Russia on #de-confliction ” of air operations in Syria, the Pentagon press secretary said today.

Peter Cook said the United States and Russia have a common interest in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. Further details, including who will be involved and the scope of the subject matter, will be determined, he added.

“The purpose of these de-confliction discussions will be to ensure that ongoing coalition air operations are not interrupted by any future Russian military activity, to ensure the safety of coalition aircrews and to avoid misjudgment and miscalculation,” Cook said.

Le #Pentagone déploie des soldats supplémentaires au #Sinaï égyptien pour renforcer la sécurité - china radio international
▻http://french.cri.cn/621/2015/09/11/562s448654.htm

Le Pentagone a confirmé jeudi que les Etats-Unis avaient déployé 75 soldats américains supplémentaires ainsi que d’autres équipements dans la péninsule du Sinaï, en #Egypte, alors que la situation sécuritaire est de plus en plus préoccupante.

Facing Islamic State, Pentagon to send infantrymen and surgical teams to Sinai - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/09/10/facing-islamic-state-pentagon-to-send-infantrymen-and-surgical-teams

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook disclosed the plan Thursday, saying about 75 more U.S. service members will deploy. The plan will increase the number of U.S. troops there to more than 700, and comes following two Sept. 4 attacks on the northern part of the peninsula that wounded four soldiers from the United States and two from Fiji with improvised explosive devices.

#Etats-Unis

The Internet Thinks Putin Is Dead
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/internet-thinks-putin-is-dead/26897066.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public since March 5.

And with little further information to go by — his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said simply that there is “no reason to worry” and “everything is fine” — some have naturally assumed the most drastic possible thing that could have happened is what did happen. 

“Putin umer” or “Putin has died,” is now trending on the Russian Internet.

RFE/RL ne se mouille pas : c’est un blog de la rédaction qui reprend la rumeur sur l’internet russe.

The threat of #drone attacks harming the White House or the president is very, very small

At some point Sunday night, someone flew a small drone onto the grounds of the White House. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the drone — or, to remove the ambiguity of that overly broad term, the small quadcopter — posed no threat to the building or its inhabitants.

Small #Drone Is Found on White House Grounds
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/world/asia/white-house-drone.html?_r=0

small aerial drone was found on the grounds of the White House but poses no threat, a spokesman for President Obama said on Monday.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said he did not have details about the size or type of the drone, but he said the Secret Service was investigating.

While drones are commonly thought of in the context of missile-firing, unmanned vehicles used against terrorists, there is a wide variety of devices that would qualify. Many small flying drones are available on the commercial market and are used as toys.

Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, are on a three-day visit to India, but their daughters, Malia and Sasha, are in Washington. The report of a drone came at a time when other threats to the president’s family or their home have led to concerns about security.

The Secret Service has received heavy criticism for a number of recent security breaches, including an intruder climbing the White House fence last year and reaching the interior of the building before being caught by agents.

US forces seize North Korean tanker transporting #Libyan oil
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-forces-seize-north-korean-tanker-transporting-libyan-oil

US Navy Seals boarded and took control of a #North_Korea-flagged tanker that had loaded crude oil at a port held by rebels in eastern Libya, the Pentagon said Monday. No one was hurt “when US forces, at the request of both the Libyan and Cypriot governments, boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory, a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement. read more

#Cyprus #Top_News

With #Snowden now free in Russia, U.S. has few options | McClatchy
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/01/198356/with-snowden-now-free-in-russia.html

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the United States has a “broad and important relationship with Russia,” which includes cooperation along with “disagreement and conflict.” He noted that Obama had said he didn’t want Snowden to be an issue in the relationship “because of its breadth and importance.”

The message was the same at the State Department, where spokeswoman Marie Harf predicted no big break in relations with Moscow over the Snowden affair, which she painted as separate from Syria, missile defense and other areas on which the U.S. needs Russian cooperation.